It's no secret that the great state of Texas has had enough of the Biden administration's indifference to border security. State Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against the administration for illegally cutting, destroying, and removing the concertina wire barrier along stretches of the most used unlawful crossings from Mexico into the US. To say the rift is becoming untenable would be an understatement.
"Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens," Paxton wrote. "They [the Biden administration] have taken additional steps to undercut any State that tries to secure its own border, which the federal government has itself abandoned."
Ken Paxton (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Immediately in response to Paxton's salvo, Joe Biden took note and ramped up the destruction on the southern perimeter, enlisting a beleaguered Border Patrol to work harder at removing fencing. Paxton issued another public statement: "On Oct. 27, federal agents were observed escalating their efforts to destroy Texas's border barriers, using heavy machinery such as forklifts to uproot large sections of fencing to facilitate mass entry."
Finally, US District Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio, TX, dropped the gavel on the Biden Bunch, barring the administration from cutting or removing the wire until at least November 13. "No great public calamity is apparent on this record to justify property destruction," wrote Moses, adding it would be fine to cut the fence "to aid individuals in medical distress."
When asked for clarity, Biden did not respond. Still, the Department of Homeland Security claimed it had the responsibility to do whatever it can "when there are conditions that put our workforce or migrants at risk."
But Joe Biden Held a Summit
Biden skipped out on frank discussions of the ever-increasing crisis at the Southern border when Mexico hosted Central and South American countries in Palenque, Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico. They talked about securing migration efforts in keeping people safe and maybe, perchance, keeping their citizens at home where they belong. Biden's excuse was that he was holding his own summit.
Mr. Biden's summit, a meeting of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, lasted two hours or so, and no solutions or even discussions about the crisis in Texas were on the agenda. Instead, Biden blabbed about economic equality. "Together, we're expanding opportunities for working people in both our nations, I believe, including through our Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity," he declared. That was the long and short of the immigration portion of the so-called immigration summit.
But after all the chest-puffing from the Swamp to the Lone Star State and back, it appears Texas could win this battle on illegal immigration and securing the border.
Who Wins in Court?
In a message from the desk of Ken Paxton, he notes the win so far: "The federal court has set the hearing on Texas's motion for preliminary injunction seeking to prevent the agents' cutting, destroying, damaging, or otherwise interfering with Texas's concertina wire fence for Nov. 7, 2023."
Until a clear decision from the court system determines otherwise, the concertina wire not damaged is keeping the illegal immigrants on the other side of the border – if they can get past the buoys in the Rio Grande, that is.
