This article was written by Kaelan Deese and published in The Washington Examiner.
Texas authorities’ decision to continue laying wire at the southern border despite a narrow Supreme Court order siding with the Biden administration’s removal effort does not defy the high court, legal experts say.
The Supreme Court dealt a blow this week to Gov. Greg Abbott‘s (R-TX) efforts to block thousands of immigrants from illegally crossing the southern border, issuing a favorable order to President Joe Biden that allows federal Border Patrol agents to remove concertina wire fences intended to deter migrants. The Texas National Guard has laid out even more wire near the border city of Eagle Pass as two dozen states now show support for the governor’s response.
Abbott’s vows to continue laying wire prompted politicians and media pundits to claim he is using Texas National Guard personnel to “defy” a Supreme Court ruling.
“Abbott is using the Texas Guard to defy a Supreme Court ruling,” former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke posted on X.
Even members of Abbott’s party similarly characterized Texas’s actions as defiance of the justices, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who, in an X post, called on state officials to “ignore” the Supreme Court order.
“This opinion is unconscionable and Texas should ignore it on behalf of the [Border Patrol] agents who will be put in a worse position by the opinion and the Biden administration’s policies,” Roy said.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued the Biden administration in October 2023 over federal agents cutting the wire, said his state has no intention to cease laying wire in response to the order.
Despite similar claims from detractors and supporters of Abbott’s efforts to continue fortifying the border, many legal experts say there is nothing the governor is doing that constitutes ignoring or defying the order by the Supreme Court.