Ken Paxton is back and the RINO led impeachment attempt has not tempered his campaign against the Biden Regime Administrative Amnesties. Paxton is again suing the criminal Biden Regime for destroying private fencing and State of Texas owned fencing on the border.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday sued the Biden administration over the alleged cutting of razor wire set up by Texas at the border to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants into the United States.
Paxton is suing the Department of Homeland Security, and Customs and Border Protection officials over what it says has been the federal government’s practice of cutting or damaging the concertina wire that has been positioned along with border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigrants entering the U.S.
“By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border security efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into its territory,” the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas says.
Texas AG Paxton Sues Biden Admin Over Cutting Of Razor Wire At Southern Border: ‘This Is Illegal’, by Adam Shaw, Fox News, October 22, 2023
Worse than the illegal acts of the Biden Regime’s Open Borders Patrol, is the lies used to justify the illegal destruction of property.
Officials and Border Patrol union officials have previously stressed that migrants can still be on U.S. soil even if they are on the other side of barriers – whether it be wire or a border wall — and Border Patrol agents must still apprehend them and take them into custody. There have been other instances where Border Patrol agents have opened gates or other barriers in order to take migrants into custody.
That is a blatant lie. All border fencing is constructed on the American side of the border. This is because to build the fencing and to maintain the fencing, the builders and repair personnel must have access to both sides of the fence or wall, but cannot cross the international border while performing those duties. Consequently, security barriers are always offset within the United States.
This is important, as that illegal aliens frequently approach fencing, but no Federally built fencing is every destroyed or damaged with the purpose of allowing the illegal aliens to enter and be arrested. When a Border Patrol Agent (BPA) sees an alien on the other side of the fencing, the agent just watches, perhaps reporting to the camera control center or a supervisor that aliens have approached the fence. No action is taken, unless the alien attempts to destroy the fencing or crosses over the fencing. Sometimes if the alien is aggressive, perhaps throwing rocks from behind the fencing or from the top of the fencing, agents will use the appropriate level of force to prevent the alien from attacking agents with rocks, usually that is pepper ball rounds from a launcher or bean-bag rounds from a shotgun. Deadly force is even permissible, as rocks are deadly weapons. [New Evidence Vindicates Lonnie Schwartz, by Federale, Federale Blog, July 11, 2017]
There is no legal requirement that illegal aliens at a border fence be arrested. If they are on the small sliver of sovereign territory on the other side of a border fence, then the alien or aliens is not required to be arrested.
What is interesting is that suddenly there is a fictional requirement to make arrests, while at the same time the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims it has the discretion whether to make arrests or not, as it pleases them. Take the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DHS claims that it can decide to not arrest those illegal aliens already in the United States. They call it prosecutorial discretion, which in the case of DACA is a decision to not even arrest a known illegal alien, but give that illegal alien employment benefits as well.
Sadly, for some strange reason, the Border Patrol union has taken the same position, there is a mythical mandatory arrest policy of illegal aliens on the southern side of border fencing.
“The reality of the law is that once they’re in the United States, they have to be taken into custody, that barbed wire is in the United States, it’s already inland,” Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, told News Nation last month. “When those individuals reach the barbed wire, it is the job of the agents to detain them and protect them into custody.
I don’t know why Del Cueto is repeating that lie. There is permanent fencing in many areas of the border, with the most extensive being in San Ysidro, CA. Does Del Cueto have any precedent for cutting fencing to arrest illegal aliens who are technically in the United States over the international boundary line?
Here are some photos of the San Ysidro fencing:
Border Patrol Limits Time Families Can Spend At Friendship Park https://t.co/QX7K4bOurQ pic.twitter.com/CwGkpmEqYD
— Patch California (@PatchCalifornia) February 15, 2018
Illegal Aliens On The Other Side Of Fencing
Locals are using the US-Mexico border fence as a giant volleyball net http://t.co/AByL3sXbTw pic.twitter.com/TGpFJWnSEM
— Quartz (@qz) August 21, 2015
Illegal Aliens “Inland” Of The Border
Is Del Cueto going to cut the fence in either of these two places to make an arrest? Obviously not. Why, because damaging Federal property is a crime and an illegal alien behind fencing is not a problem for any agent. Yes, these illegal aliens are technically in the United States, but only because the fence is built north of the international border demarcation line, so construction and repair personnel can legally access both sides of the fence for initial construction and repair.
Instead, Del Cueto should seek legal advice. It is well established law that a supervisor or manager in Federal service cannot issue illegal orders to a subordinate. An agent can legally refuse such orders and cannot be disciplined. Every Federal employee is trained on such situations during annual ethics training. In this case, there is no law authorizing Federal employees to destroy the property of the State of Texas, just as there is no lawful authority for a Federal employee to destroy Federal property. And there is no Border Patrol policy that allows for the destruction of Federally owned fencing to allow illegal aliens to enter.
Agents in the union are incurring criminal liability when destroying property and aiding illegal aliens to enter and remain in the United States. Del Cueto should read the complaint and consider their liability under Title 8 United States Code (USC) Section 1324, Bringing In And Harboring Certain Aliens and Title 8 USC 1103(a)(5), Powers And Duties. Del Cueto should also read closely, or have the union attorneys read Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit, which clearly establishes the criminal liability of agents destroying border barriers. [Texas AG Lawsuit on Concertina Wire, Ken Paxton, Scribd, undated]
My advice to Attorney General Paxton: in addition to this lawsuit, he should file a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) and file a criminal complaint that the Border Patrol is destroying property of the State of Texas.
