Texas Granted Temp Restraining Order Against Biden Admin Preventing Removal Of Razor Wire At Border.
Judge Alia Moses of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ordered the Biden Administration to stop cutting the razor wire installed on the Texas border to deter illegal migrant crossings.
The order stops the Biden administration from (property refers to the razor wires):
- Removing the property from its present location for any reason other than to provide or obtain emergency medical aid
- Concealing the property in any way
- Offering the property for sale, rent, or use to any person, business, or entity
- Selling or otherwise transferring the property in whole or in part
- Encumbering the property in any way
- Scrapping the property
- Disposing of the property in any way
- Dissembling, degrading, tampering with, or transforming the property in any way for any reason other than to provide or obtain emergency medical
- Failing to take all steps necessary to protect the property against damage or loss of any kind
Moses granted the restraining order for three reasons.
The judge ruled that Texas would likely succeed in the Courts on the merits because the state owns the wires and established that the government damaged the wires. Plus, the government did not have permission “to interfere with the wires.”
Moses decided that Texas established irreparable harm without the restraining order (I eliminated the citations):
The Plaintiff preliminarily establishes that it would face irreparable harm without a temporary restraining order. The Plaintiff alleges that by “damaging, destroying, and exercising dominion over state property,” the Defendants are causing the Plaintiff to incur “extensive costs.”
The Plaintiff also claims that the Defendants’ actions show that they intend to prevent the Plaintiff from “maintaining operational control of its own property.” Furthermore, the Plaintiff avers that destroying the concertina wire “irreparably harms Texas because it facilitates increased illegal entry into the State.”
Consequently, the Plaintiff argues that it will continue to incur considerable additional expenses to expand social services, medical care, education, and other government programs, to accommodate the influx of illegal aliens.
To support this assertion, the Plaintiff provides sworn declarations from various Texas state officials, who describe the significant annual cost of providing emergency medical services, social services, and public education to illegal aliens.
Moses also found that Texas satisfied the requirements for the temporary restraining order based on public interest “but just barely.” The judge agreed that stopping “unlawful activity, including illegal entry, is in the public interest.”
However, Moses said she recognized “a countervailing public interest…in allowing BP [border patrol] agents to address medical emergencies.”
Therefore, the restraining order “includes a narrow exception” to allow the government “to move or cut the concertina wires to aid individuals in medical distress.”
The temporary restraining order expires on November 13, unless the Court extends it.
The preliminary injunction will occur on November 7.