(Washington) The US administration of Democratic President Joe Biden on Friday accused Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott of preventing the Federal Border Patrol from carrying out its mission by blocking its access to a key sector of the border with the Mexico.
A declared supporter of Donald Trump, who made the fight against immigration one of the main themes of his electoral campaign, Mr. Abbott openly defies the authority of the Biden administration, accusing it of deliberate inaction “in the face of a record influx of migrants at the border in recent months.
In December, a federal appeals court prohibited the border police from damaging the barbed wire installed by Texas near the border town of Eagle Pass, on the Rio Grande, to carry out its missions, unless otherwise noted. justified by a medical emergency.
The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court in early January to have the decision overturned, but this week the Texas National Guard began installing new barbed wire, said in a new appeal to the highest court on Friday. of the country, the legal adviser to the Biden administration, Elizabeth Prelogar.
These new obstacles “effectively prohibit border police agents from accessing the border or approaching the river along this 2.5 mile segment (approximately 3.7 km, Editor’s note)”, underlines she said.
Denouncing an “escalation of measures by the State of Texas to block the ability of the Border Patrol to patrol or even monitor the border and to be in a position to respond to emergencies”, the government representative reiterates her request for cancellation of the decision of the Court of Appeal.