Michael Karlis
Razor wire strung up by the Texas Military Department blocks access from the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
At the same time, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of Del Rio questioned why the Biden administration doesn't make it easier for migrants to claim asylum at points of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the article.
The current federal system forces migrants to wade through the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande, the judge opined, noting that Border Patrol agents are cutting the wire to save lives of migrants. In that regard, the feds are responding to problems “of their own creation," she added.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration last month after Border Patrol agents cut through the razor wire laid out along the banks of the Rio Grande by the Texas Military Department. Paxton alleged the agents were illegally destroying state property as they vied to save migrants from drowning.
In her ruling, Moses said Texas didn’t provide enough evidence to show the federal government was breaking the law, according to the Tribune.
Paxton’s office appealed Moses’ order to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, according to the news site.
Although Moses sided with the federal government, she said the White House should give migrants a safer means of seeking asylum.
“Any rational observer could not help but wonder why the Defendants do not just allow migrants to access the country at a port of entry,” Moses wrote. “If agents are going to allow migrants to enter the country, and indeed facilitate their doing so, why make them undertake the dangerous task of crossing the river? Would it not be easier, and safer, to receive them at a port of entry?”
The federal government does allow some asylum seekers to be received by agents at ports of entry. However, migrants must make an appointment online, and only 1,450 daily appointments are available across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, the Tribune reports.
With limited appointments and migrants lacking regular access to the internet, many opt to cross the border illegally to be then received by border agents and be processed for asylum, experts told the Tribune.
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