Supreme Court rules feds can cut through wire Texas deployed along border

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents can cut through concertina wire deployed along the banks of the Rio Grande as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star immigration crackdown.

The decision fell along ideological lines with the court's most conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — all siding with Texas. Although the court didn't give a reason for its ruling, it appears to uphold earlier precedent giving the U.S. government, not states, immigration-enforcement authority.

Abbott deployed the concertina wire along the Texas-Mexico over the summer, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton subsequently sued the federal government, alleging Border Patrol agents were caught cutting through the wire. The AG's office accused the agents of trespassing and damaging state property.

Initially, a federal judge ruled in the Biden Administration's favor. However, the notoriously conservative New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month overturned that ruling.

Monday's high ruling could offer a hint which way the Supreme Court is likely to rule on a separate showdown between the state and feds along the border.

Abbott and the Biden administration are locked in a standoff over Texas National Guard Troops' seizure of a park from federal agents in Eagle Pass earlier this month. The Biden administration has also asked the high court to intervene in that dispute.

Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson said court precedent suggests the White House is likely in line for another victory.

"Abbott hopes [the Supreme Court] will rule differently and say that states can protect their own borders," Jillson told the Current. "But, I doubt that will happen because immigration historically has been a federal issue, and while the Supreme Court has been willing to overturn long-standing precedence, I doubt they will allow [states] to control the borders."

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