According to a decision by the US Supreme Court, border patrol agents are authorized to remove razor wire that Texas officials had erected along the US-Mexico border.
The lower court’s decision, which ordered the federal agents to cease cutting wire close to Eagle Pass, Texas, was temporarily put on hold by the 5-4 decision on Monday.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas had approved the fencing.
The Biden White House claimed that cutting the wire hurts migrants, so they asked to be permitted to keep doing so.
Along with the three liberal justices on the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett decided in favor of the White House request.
Not a single judge provided a rationale for their decisions.
The wire, according to the Biden administration’s attorneys, limits border agents’ capacity to handle immigrants who have already entered the country.
As part of Operation Lone Star, the government of Mr. Abbott has also placed buoys along the Rio Grande River to discourage illegal immigration.
The buoys are being contested by the Biden administration in a different federal case.
Mexican officials have criticized the approximately 30-mile (46-kilometer) razor fence, claiming it violates international law. It has been observed that migrants can avoid the wire by swimming and climbing beneath it, frequently suffering injuries in the process.
This fiscal year, there have been roughly 270,000 migrant detentions in the Eagle Pass area, which is where the buoys and fencing are situated.
Buses carrying migrants to cities governed by Democrats are another aspect of Operation Lone Star.
Texas filed a lawsuit against the federal government last year after Border Patrol agents broke through some of the fencing, claiming they couldn’t get to the border they were tasked with protecting.
It has been perceived as a significant intensification of the legal disputes concerning immigration between Mr. Abbott and Democratic Senator Joe Biden.
Texas contends that the federal government has not done enough to stop people from entering the country illegally. The “epicenter of this crisis” is what places places like Eagle Pass, according to their court filing in the razor wire case.
Texas authorities took control of a border park earlier this month and announced that federal agents were not permitted to enter.
Texas disregarded the Department of Homeland Security’s request last week to allow federal access to the park again, which is how agents monitor the border.
Two women and two children drowned in the Rio Grande River this month, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after Border Patrol agents “were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.”
The Department of Military Affairs in Texas.