For months, the State of Texas has installed rolls of razor wire at certain points along its border with Mexico to impede illegal border crossings. That wire has then frequently been cut by federal Border Patrol officials as part of the Biden open-borders policy.
The situation has inevitably found itself the subject of litigation. In December, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the removal of the wire. Then, yesterday, in a split 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court vacated that decision, at least temporarily enabling the removal to resume. Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh wrote the minority opinion, in support of Texas, while Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett joined the three liberal justices to make up the majority. Their ruling included the following, ironic declaration:
If accepted, the [5th U.S. Circuit} court’s rationale would leave the United States at the mercy of States that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes.
You can only laugh when imagining the poor US government at the “mercy” of one of its states trying to “force” it to enforce its own law.
In response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted:
This is not over. Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent to the illegal crossings Biden encourages. I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed that sentiment, proclaiming that “This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
For his part, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) called on state officials to ignore the Supreme Court order:
They have a duty under the Constitution… and every other norm of leadership of any sovereign state, to protect your citizens, period, full stop. There is no exception to that. And if the Supreme Court wants to ignore that truth, which a slim majority did, Texas still had the duty, Texas leaders still have the duty, to defend their people.
It’s like, if someone’s breaking into your house, and the court says, “Oh, sorry. You can’t defend yourself.” What do you tell the court? You tell the court to go to hell, you defend yourself and then figure it out later. [Emphasis added.]
For more, see Fox News.