A judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the administration of President Joe Biden, forcing federal agents to stop cutting or removing border barriers installed along the southern border by Texas.
As reported by The Dallas Express, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against the Biden administration for destroying deterrent measures installed by Texas and, thus, allegedly assisting migrants who were attempting to enter the country unlawfully.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Paxton said. “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,” Paxton continued. “The courts must put a stop to it, or Biden’s free-for-all will make this crushing immigration crisis even worse.”
Even after Texas sued the federal government, agents apparently continued to interfere with the state’s deterrence measures.
In a motion for the restraining order, Texas explained, “Just two days after Texas notified them of this lawsuit, federal agents escalated matters, trading bolt cutters for an industrial-strength telehandler forklift to dismantle Texas’s border fence.”
“Federal agents used hydraulic-powered pallet forks to rip Texas’s fence — concertina wire, fencing posts, clamps, and all — out of the ground, holding it suspended in the air in order to wave more than 300 migrants illegally into Texas,” the filing added.
In response to the continued destruction of border barriers, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses granted “the Motion for a temporary restraining order until the parties have an opportunity to present evidence at a preliminary injunction hearing before the Court.”
While the hearing is scheduled for November 7 at 2 p.m., the federal government is barred from “removing the property from its present location for any reason other than to provide or obtain emergency medical aid” until November 13.
Additionally, federal agents are forbidden from “disassembling, degrading, tampering with, or transforming the property in any way for any reason other than to provide or obtain emergency medical [aid] as noted.” They must “take all steps necessary to protect the property against damage or loss of any kind.”
In a statement received by The Dallas Express, Paxton said, “The federal government’s outrageous escalation in response to our lawsuit demonstrates Biden’s disturbing contempt for the State of Texas, for the citizens of the United States, and for our country’s entire foundation of the rule of law.”
“By acting quickly and monitoring their actions closely, we were able to secure a restraining order, and I am confident we will continue to prevail,” he added.
Allegedly, the federal agents’ reason for cutting through the wire previously has sometimes been to administer emergency medical treatment. NBC 5 DFW reported that agents have cut the wire to assist unlawful migrants who have become entangled in it or trapped in the Rio Grande while attempting to enter the country illegally.
The restraining order comes as tensions at the southern border worsen. Gov. Greg Abbott has said, “We literally are at war with the White House, fighting to secure our own border.”
Still, the Biden administration stands by its approach to border security.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently remarked, “Look, the president has done what he can from here, from the federal government, from the White House to put forth and manage our border in a safe and humane way to respect the dignity of every human, as he says all the time, and making sure that our communities are safe.”
“The president has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else,” she claimed. “He really has.”
Meanwhile, recent polling indicates that Texas voters are more concerned about border security and immigration than any other issue, as reported by The Dallas Express.