Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed suit on Tuesday against the Biden administration after Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials ordered agents to tear down sections of the southern border fence with Mexico.
“By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border deterrence efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into Texas,” the lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, argues. The attorney general accused Border Patrol agents of removing parts of the fencing to “ease aliens’ ability to illegally climb up the riverbank into Texas” since late September.
The concertina border-fence was created as part of Texas governor Greg Abbott’s 2021 initiative, Operation Lone Star, to stem the flow of illegal migrants at sites such as Eagle Pass. Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as other senior-ranking members of the Biden administration, including officials in Customs and Border Protection, were specifically named in Paxton’s legal filing.
“In the midst of an unprecedented immigration crisis at the southern border, federal government officials are, once again, undermining Texas’s efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration,” the document opens.
The suit comes less than a month after Mayorkas waived over two dozen federal laws in early October, paving the way for the White House to resume construction of a border-wall in south Texas. “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” the secretary wrote in the notice signaling a notable reversal of the administration’s earlier refusal to erect new barriers.
The new project plans to add an additional 20 miles to the existing border wall in Starr County, Texas, which has been reported as an area experiencing “high illegal entry.” Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, in which the county is located, has seen over 245,000 illegal migrants enter the U.S. through that area during fiscal year 2023.
“The crisis at the southern border is well known. The Biden Administration’s abdication of its duty to secure the border has allowed millions of aliens to illegally cross into Texas and the United States in record numbers,” Tuesday’s letter added.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Paxton said in an official statement following the filing. “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.”
In mid September, Paxton was acquitted on 16 separate articles of impeachment by the Texas house of representatives following several allegations of impropriety. The attorney general’s legal troubles arose following an agreement reached with four former aides who accused him of wrongful retaliation, which culminated in a multimillion-dollar settlement in February. At the time, Paxton had asked the state legislature to set aside taxpayer funds for the settlement.
Several of Paxton’s former aides quit or were fired after raising ethical concerns with the FBI, alleging he was abusing the power of his office. Specifically, the officials complained that Paxton was seeking to help Nate Paul, an Austin real-estate developer who made unproven claims about a conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties. During this time, Paxton further disclosed to staffers that he was having an affair with a female associate of Paul’s.
“If we don’t keep public officials from abusing the powers of their office, then frankly no one can,” Republican state representative Andrew Murr, one of the impeachment process managers, told the body before Saturday morning’s vote.