The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Border Patrol can cut through and remove razor wire that Texas has installed along the Rio Grande, because the federal government sets and enforces immigration law, not the governor of a state. Even though federal supremacy is a very basic principal in constitutional law, four rightwing justices nonetheless voted against the emergency petition from the Biden administration.
As is usual with emergency orders, the one-page order from the Court didn’t address any of the merits of the case, which is still moving through federal courts. It simply vacated a December order from the cruelty-friendly Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that had blocked the Border Patrol from cutting Texas’s precious murderwire.
The Biden administration argued that Texas’s razor wire prevented federal agents from doing their job of arresting migrants who have already crossed into the US by the time they reach the northern riverbank of the Rio Grande.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made defying federal law a central part of his political agenda, claiming that because the US government isn’t stopping migrants to his satisfaction, Texas gets to do what it wants. Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” is his effort to use state police and National Guard units to enforce his very own immigration policy, and as the Texas Tribune notes, it’s been a pretty pricey project, considering it’s really not the state’s job to do immigration:
Since 2021, Abbott’s Operation Lone Star initiative has created tension between the state and federal government. Under the operation, Abbott has deployed state troopers across the 1,200 mile Texas-Mexico border; ordered state police to arrest migrants who are suspected of trespassing; spent $11 million to install 70,000 rolls of concertina wire along the Rio Grande; and spent $1.5 billion on about a dozen miles of border walls.
Texas sued the federal government after the Border Patrol cut through part of Abbott’s Folly; Attorney General Ken “Federal trial still pending” Paxton claimed that the feds had illegally destroyed state property.
Abbott’s rogue border operation is of course wildly popular with rightwingers who love them some US Constitution except when it’s inconvenient. But you see, Abbott has a special version of the US Constitution that says governors can do what they need to repel an “invasion,” and since everyone on Fox News agrees that undocumented immigrants are literally an invading army, he figures the Framers had that metaphorical sense of “invasion” in mind when they wrote the thing.
No court has yet even dignified that claim enough to even consider it, because the federal supremacy clause is quite enough to settle the matter, thank you. That now apparently includes most of the Supreme Court, apart from Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kegstand, although they didn’t state why they think Texas is right.
In a statement, Paxton didn’t particularly acknowledge that the Court had reaffirmed yet again that the federal government is actually in charge of border policy and enforcement, because maybe the final outcome in the case will favor Texas. Instead, he immediately accused President Joe Biden of colluding with foreigns, because of course he would, and there again is that bullshit invocation of “invasion”:
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America. […] The destruction of Texas’ border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
The Supreme Court’s order doesn’t address two separate federal lawsuits against Texas's deployment of floating barriers in the Rio Grande, or against the recent Texas law allowing Texas law enforcement to arrest undocumented migrants anywhere in the state, accusing them of entering the state illegally and demanding they cross back into Mexico at a point of entry.
Reaction from the usual wingnuts has been about what you’d expect; on Xitter, a few are insisting that John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the three liberals on the Court in upholding federal supremacy, are “traitors,” and former Fox News asshole Tucker Carlson was explicitly calling for “Men of Texas” to go to the border and, well, you know:
We are certain that cool heads in Congress will reach a thoughtful compromise on immigration, which is sure to defuse these ugly tensions. There’s no reason for Republicans to needlessly prevent such legislation from passing, is there?
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The Biden campaign is tweeting out Trumps nonsense:
Trump: We are an institute in a powerful death penalty! We will put this on!
Campaign: Yeah, we don’t know what he’s saying either.
Guys I'm not supposed to drink before work, so if everyone can stop being raging assholes for another hour that would be great.
Or at least can we go back to cat pictures?
I couldn't even get past the first couple of 'graphs of the story of the woman dying alone in prison. I'm not strong enough.
So yeah, more cat pictures please.
And more nice people in charge of government.
Thanks.