Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 4
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that Border Patrol agents may resume cutting a razor wire fence that Texas installed on its border with Mexico to deter migrants and asylum seekers from entering the country.
The 5-4 ruling on Monday was a victory for the administration of US President Joe Biden, issued in the midst of an ongoing legal battle that saw a federal appeals court force agents to stop cutting the fence last month.
For more than two years, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has sought to bar migrants and asylum seekers from entering the US, unspooling razor wire that extends over 46km (30 miles) of its border with Mexico along the banks of the Rio Grande river and has left people injured and bloodied.
Border control has historically been the legal domain of the federal government. The US Department of Justice argues that the fence has sown chaos, impeding it from carrying out controls along the border.
The fence has been criticised by Mexican officials as a violation of international law. exas’s border with Mexico spans 1,930km (1,200 miles) in total.
The fence is part of a wider state effort to take control of Texas’s borders. Operation Lone Star, launched in 2021 with significant public support, pushes the legal boundaries of what a state can do to control immigration.
The operation, which has cost more than $4.5bn so far, also includes a floating barrier installed in the Rio Grande.
As the number of people crossing the US-Mexico border continues to surge, the Texas operation has become a flashpoint in immigration policy with critics decrying the “inhumane” measures. Abbott has used the fentanyl crisis to justify his measures, citing a rise in drug smuggling.
While Republicans have criticised the Biden administration for the rising numbers, there is also pressure from within the Democratic Party. Politicians like New York City Mayor Eric Adams are slamming the president for not doing more to address irregular immigration as his city struggles to provide housing and other services for the new arrivals.
Source: Al Jazeera And News Agencies
