Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal court for cutting and destroying concertina wire barriers that Texas officials have placed along the southern border to deter illegal crossings.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, has sought to prevent illegal crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border through an effort known as Operation Lone Star. As part of that operation, the Texas Department of Public Safety and members of the Texas National Guard have set up the fencing along the Rio Grande.
According to the complaint, incidents such as the one in June have continued. The lawsuit specifically alleges that CBP personnel created numerous breach points along these rows of fencing near Eagle Pass, Texas, in September and October, as the town began dealing with a surge of illegal immigrants.
The lawsuit alleges that CBP personnel have also begun attaching ropes to their vehicles to throw to illegal border-crossers to help them climb up at steep points on the riverbanks on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.
The lawsuit accuses the various defendants of destroying Texas’s property by cutting and removing the fences. It also accuses the defendants of “trespass to chattels”—a legal term describing one party’s interference with a second party’s ability to use its property.
The lawsuit also argues that the various defendants exceeded their legal authority by cutting and moving aside the razor wire barriers.
“No statute authorizes Defendants to destroy and seize border infrastructure belonging to another sovereign in order to facilitate unlawful entry of aliens into the United States,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit further argues that the DHS is bound by the Administrative Procedures Act to give notice and allow for public comment before cutting and removing the razor wire barriers.
Mr. Paxton is seeking an injunction to prevent DHS personnel from continuing to cut the barriers for the duration of the lawsuit and is asking for a judge to ultimately rule that the efforts by DHS personnel to cut through Texas’s razor wire barriers are unlawful.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Mr. Paxton said on Oct. 24 as he announced the lawsuit.
“Americans across the country were horrified to watch Biden’s open-border policy in action: agents were physically cutting wires and assisting the aliens’ entry into our state. This is illegal. It puts our country and our citizens at risk. The courts must put a stop to it, or Biden’s free-for-all will make this crushing immigration crisis even worse.”
A DHS spokesperson told NTD News that the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation but said Border Patrol agents generally have a responsibility to take illegal border-crossers into custody once they set foot on U.S. soil. The spokesperson also said federal border officials are also generally required to act “when there are conditions that put our workforce or migrants at risk.”
A CBP spokesperson similarly told NTD News in a statement following the June wire-cutting incident that federal border personnel were acting in line with their duties to apprehend and process people who had already crossed to the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.
“The individuals had already crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico, were on U.S. soil, and are subject to U.S. immigration laws,” the CBP spokesperson said.
“Individuals who cross unlawfully will be subject to the lawful pathways rule, which places common-sense conditions on asylum eligibility, with certain exceptions. Those who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
