A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from removing razor wire placed on private property along the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo courtesy of U.S. District Court
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- In a legal victory for Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a federal judge Monday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from removing razor wire installed to stop the entry of illegal migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. District Court Judge Alia Moses of the Western District of Texas issued a temporary restraining order banning the removal of the wire near the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, "for any reason other than to provide or obtain emergency medical aid."
Moses ruled that the wire is the "property" of Texas after the state sued last week to stop border patrol agents from cutting into the barrier.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested the restraining order after he said border patrol agents cutting the state's barrier and "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."
"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," Paxton said in a statement Monday.
Judge Moses' restraining order will last for two weeks through Nov. 13, allowing both sides to present arguments in court in a hearing set for Nov. 7.
Moses wrote in her opinion that she will consider the administration's "responsibilities over national security and border security, and its powers to effectuate its duties, up to and including the destruction of private or state property," in addition to the property rights of people consenting to allow wire to be placed on their land and Texas's right to assist those property owners.
"Federal judge orders Biden Admin to stop cutting razor wire along Texas-Mexico border," Abbott wrote Monday in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"Another win for Texas and our historic border mission. Biden created this crisis and has tried to block us at every turn. Attorney General Paxton and I are pushing back," Abbott added.
Texas is continuing to fight a federal judge's order to move the state's floating border barrier on the Rio Grande.
In the ruling last month, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered the orange buoys be moved because the barrier "irreparably harms the public safety, navigation and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande."
