Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to defy the ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n The US Supreme Court has authorized federal agents to remove razor wire barricades installed along the Mexican border by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Amid record numbers of illegal border crossings, Republicans argue that President Joe Biden is \u201cactively aiding and abetting\u201d<\/em> an \u201cinvasion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In a 5-4 decision on Monday, the court granted an emergency appeal by the Biden administration and ruled that Abbott must allow federal authorities access to the border. Though nominally conservative, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts sided with their three liberal colleagues to grant the appeal. None of the justices explained their decision in writing.<\/p>\n Abbott moved Texas National Guard troops to the border in 2021 and installed around 30 miles of razor-sharp concertina wire at the popular crossing spot of Eagle Pass. When Biden\u2019s Department of Homeland Security ordered Border Patrol agents to begin cutting the wire last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration, accusing the agents of damaging state property in order to \u201cassist\u201d<\/em> migrants to \u201cillegally cross\u201d<\/em> the border.<\/p>\n The Biden administration argued that an unfavorable decision would allow \u201cstate-law regimes\u201d<\/em> to supplant federal immigration law\u00a0and hamper federal agents\u2019 ability to \u201cquickly respond to emergency situations\u201d<\/em> along the border.<\/p>\n Republicans reacted to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision with outrage. \u201cThis is beyond inaction,\u201d<\/em> South Carolina Senator Tim Scott wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening. \u201cPresident Biden is actively aiding and abetting the largest southern border invasion our country has ever seen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201dThis is not over,\u201d Abbott tweeted, adding that he \u201cwill continue to defend Texas\u2019 constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property.\u201d<\/em> In a series of follow-up posts to social media on Tuesday, Abbott said that more concertina wire would be installed, and that the national guard would remain in place.<\/p>\n More than 300,000 migrants crossed the US-Mexico border in December, CBS News reported earlier this month, citing government data. This figure represents a record monthly high and eclipses the previous record set in September. At least 7.5 million people \u2013 more than the population of the state of Arizona \u2013 have entered the US illegally since Biden took office in 2021, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.<\/p>\n Under Biden\u2019s policy of \u2018catch and release\u2019, illegal immigrants are apprehended, detained, and then released into the US with orders to show up at court hearings at a later date. As of December, there is a backlog<\/a> of more than 3.2 million such cases, and newly arriving immigrants can sometimes expect to wait a decade for their case to be heard, the Associated Press reported last summer.<\/p>\n