From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

Attorney General Ken Paxton also said the ruling was a “huge win for Texas…. We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

A panel of three judges on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas in a lawsuit filed over its concertina wire barriers.

The court ruled 2-1 in a case that may set the tone for two other cases before the court related to Texas’ border security operations.

Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote for the majority, with Judge Don Willett joining him. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez dissented, arguing Texas did not meet “its burden to show a waiver of sovereign immunity or a likelihood of success on the merits.”

The ruling was issued 13 months after Texas sued the Biden administration after it destroyed concertina wire barriers it erected on state land.

The court was asked to decide whether Border Patrol agents can legally cut concertina wire fencing erected by Texas law enforcement along its border with Mexico. The Biden administration ordered Gov. Greg Abbott to remove it, arguing he was interfering with federal immigration operations. Abbott refused, arguing that the administration was facilitating illegal entry and violating federal law. In response, the administration ordered Border Patrol agents to use a bulldozer and remove wire fencing. Abbott sued, arguing they were destroying Texas property and Texas has the legal authority to erect barriers on state land.

Texas requested the district court to issue an injunction to block Border Patrol agents from removing the fencing, which it denied despite agreeing with Texas’ arguments.

The court “agreed with Texas on the facts: not only was Border Patrol unhampered by the wire, but its agents had breached the wire numerous times ‘for no apparent purpose other than to allow migrants easier entrance further inland,’” the Fifth Circuit’s 75-page ruling states. However, it denied Texas’ request arguing the federal government had sovereign immunity.

Texas next appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which granted the injunction pending appeal. The Biden administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which vacated the injunction without any stated reason.

The Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t deter Texas, which continued building and erecting concertina wire in the Eagle Pass area, and later established the military base for Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, there. OLS officers also expanded concertina wire barriers in other key areas along its border.

“The Texas National Guard continues to hold the line in Eagle Pass,” Abbott said at the time. “Texas will not back down from our efforts to secure the border in Biden’s absence.”

The three-judge panel ruled that Texas “is entitled to a preliminary injunction.” The ruling states that the Biden administration “clearly waived sovereign immunity as to Texas’s state law claims under § 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act,” which it says “is supported by a flood of uncontradicted circuit precedent to which the United States has no answer.”

The Fifth Circuit also rejected other Biden administration arguments, including that Texas was erecting barriers to safeguard its own property, not to “regulate Border Patrol.”

The ruling reversed the district court’s judgment and granted Texas’ preliminary injunction. The court also prohibited the federal government from “damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s c-wire fence in the vicinity of Eagle Pass,” including Shelby Park, which Abbott shut down after learning that the Biden administration was using it as a staging ground to facilitate illegal entry into the US.

Abbott lauded the Fifth Circuit ruling, saying, “The federal court of appeals just ruled that Texas has the right to build the razor wire border wall that we have constructed to deny illegal entry into our state and that Biden was wrong to cut our razor wire. We continue adding more razor wire border barrier.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton also said the ruling was a “huge win for Texas.”

“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing. We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

With weeks left in the administration, the concertina wire barrier case is unlikely to be appealed for a full court review.

In May, the court is scheduled to hear arguments on a lawsuit related to Texas’ marine barriers in the Rio Grande River, unless the case is dropped by the incoming Trump administration. Another case before the court is over Texas’ border security law, SB 4.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

The Canadian government made clear its beefing up its border security apparatus after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs against Canada and Mexico if the flow of illegal immigration and drugs are not reined in.

Trump in November announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico unless both countries do more to limit the level of illicit drugs and illegal immigration entering into the United States. In response, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the president-elect at his residence in Mar-a-Largo and his government has detailed what more it’s doing to bolster immigration enforcement.

“We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”

“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”

Trudeau’s Liberal Party-led government has pivoted on border enforcement since its first days in power.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) — the country’s law enforcement arm that patrols the border — is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.

While encounters along the U.S.-Canada border remain a fraction of what’s experienced at the southern border, activity has risen in recent months. Border Patrol agents made nearly 24,000 apprehensions along the northern border in fiscal year 2024 — marking a roughly 140% rise in apprehensions made the previous fiscal year, according to the latest data from Customs and Border Protection.

“While a change to U.S. border policy could result in an increase in migrants traveling north toward the Canada-U.S. border and between ports of entry, the RCMP now has valuable tools and insights to address this movement that were not previously in place,” read an RCMP statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “New mechanisms have been established which enable the RCMP to effectively manage apprehensions of irregular migrants between the ports.”

Trudeau’s pivot on illegal immigration enforcement follows the Canadian population growing more hawkish on the issue, public opinion surveys have indicated. Other polls also indicate Trudeau’s Liberal Party will face a beating at the voting booth in October 2025 against the Conservative Party, led by Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre.

Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.

Trump, who has vowed to embark on an incredibly hawkish immigration agenda once he re-enters office, has tapped a number of hardliners to lead his efforts. The president-elect announced South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan to serve as border czar and longtime aide Stephen Miller to serve as deputy chief of staff for policy.