Texas border: Abbott standing ground despite SCOTUS decision siding with feds

SCOTUS & Texas razor wire battle at border

Governor Greg Abbott said he will continue to hold the line at the U.S.-Mexico border despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the federal government, who can remove dozens of miles of razor wire put up by the state of Texas.

TEXAS - Governor Greg Abbott said he will continue to hold the line at the U.S.-Mexico border despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the federal government, who can remove dozens of miles of razor wire put up by the state of Texas.

Although the feds won this order, Governor Abbott shared pictures on X, formerly Twitter, of the Texas National Guard standing their ground surrounded by razor wire.

It’s been a back-and-forth battle between the state of Texas’ aggressive initiatives to increase border security and the federal government trying to stop them. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled the federal government remains supreme.

"The courts weren't willing to reverse 200 years of immigration policy on this issue," St. Edward’s University Political Science Professor Brian Smith said.

In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court is temporarily allowing border patrol agents to cut and remove about 30 miles of razor wire installed by Texas law enforcement along the Rio Grande.

"This is a federal power and although the federal government is not getting a lot of gold stars on this issue, it is still their responsibility," Smith said.

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The floating barrier in the Rio Grande at the Texas border can stay for now, a court ruled on Wednesday.

This order sets a new standard as to what Texas can do regarding securing the border.

"A question in every other case after this is going to be is our situation like the fence? Is it more like the fence or less like the fence? The more you can analogize it to a fence, the more likely it is that the reasoning behind this order is what will control that situation and that's going to be the challenge for lawyers on both sides is making things appear to be or not be like this particular fence," Constitutional Law Attorney David Coale said.

Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paston said they will continue to fight in court to keep the razor wire up.

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"Ken Paxton says this is not over, and so he has to decide what is his next step and what he is able to do under these new constraints," Smith said.

Meanwhile, senators are working on a deal to secure the southern border. They said they’re close but aren’t quite finished yet.

"We're working hard on a bipartisan basis to try to come up with a piece of legislation that will actually help begin to solve this crisis at the border," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

McConnell said he wants a bill on the senate floor this week.