Amid tension over the State of Texas’ efforts to reduce illegal immigration, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a complaint asking a federal judge in Del Rio to stop border agents from destroying concertina wire placed by the state.
Paxton announced the lawsuit in a news release on Tuesday afternoon.
“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. The courts must put a stop to it, or Biden’s free-for-all will make this crushing immigration crisis even worse.”
The complaint alleges that federal agents cut and destroy concertina wire and “attach ropes or cables” to the wire to make illegal entry easier.
Among other claims, the complaint accuses the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of acting outside its statutory authority and violating private property in an “arbitrary and capricious” fashion.
Efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott and state officials to reduce the uptrend in illegal immigration have long been a point of conflict between Texas and the federal government.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice sued Texas in a bid to halt the Abbott administration’s plan to implement a system of aquatic barriers in the Rio Grande. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a federal judge’s order requiring Texas to remove the buoys.
One of the complaints against the buoy barriers was that Texas failed to seek approval from an international commission that governs activities on the Rio Grande.
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