An appeals court on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration from cutting razor wire along Texas's border with Mexico.
The administration must refrain "from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s c-wire fence in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas, as indicated in Texas’s complaint," the order of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reads.
The court granted a temporary injunction that stops the Biden administration from cutting the razor wire while it hears the case, in which the State of Texas is attempting to stop federal immigration authorities from taking down the barriers. Both the state and the federal government agreed that the administration can cut the wire in the case of a migrant facing a medical emergency.
Texas has fought with the administration over its razor wire barricades for months. A judge in late October issued a temporary restraining order, stopping the Biden administration from taking the wire down after Texas sued the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as other agencies and their heads, over the issue.
A month later, however, that same judge allowed federal authorities to cut the wire again, though she criticized the administration for its "utter failure" to stop illegal immigration. The state then appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit.
Another legal feud between Texas and the Biden administration concerns the state's construction of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month ordered the state to remove the buoys.