Texas won another victory over the Biden Administration, this time simply because the feds failed to file an appeal.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a court order for President
Kamala HarrisJoe Biden’s administration to finish the border wall.Biden issued an executive order to stop the border wall and told DHS to find a way to redirect the $1.4 billion Congress allotted for the wall.
Paxton sued the administration “under the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing that Biden violated the Consolidated Appropriations Act.”
In May, Paxton received a final injunction from Judge Drew Tipton of the United States District Court Southern District of Texas McAllen Division.
Biden’s administration had 60 days to appeal, which it never did, securing the victory for Texas.
“For the reasons stated in this Court’s Memorandum Opinion and Order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction in part, (Dkt. No. 128), the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated success on the merits of their claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act for violation of the Consolidated Appropriations Act,” Judge Drew Tipton wrote. “Accordingly, the Court concludes that entry of a permanent injunction is appropriate.”
The order told the administration it could not implement any plan to divert funds from their original purpose.
The funds must go to “construction of physical barriers, such as additional walls, fencing, buoys, etc.”
Paxton said: “This is a final victory against Biden’s attempt to defund the border wall. His Administration illegally sought to prevent the construction of the border wall and illegally attempted to repurpose the money allocated for American safety and sovereignty, working instead to keep the border open. I sued and won to stop their unlawful scheme. Now, the Administration has thrown in the towel by declining to appeal their defeat and will be legally required to build the wall.”
There’s a saying that half of life is simply showing up, but the Biden Administration couldn’t even do that. Maybe everyone was distracted by the soft coup against the administration’s titular figure head. Or maybe the plain language of the statute made them realize that the case was hopeless.
This is another in an increasingly long string of victories Paxton has secured over the Biden Administration, which is probably the real reason Dade Phelan’s backers tried to hard to engineer his impeachment.
At the very least this should mean an end to federal agents actively attempting to dismantle border security barriers erected by the state of Texas.
Now it remains to be seen if the Biden Administration will actually resume border wall construction, or if they’ll merely try to stall and run out the clock. I suspect the latter, given that open borders have become a central goal for the social justice-infected Democratic Party. The courts have ways to enjoin government action, but it is much harder to compel an Administration to do what it doesn’t want to do, as there are simply too many ways for a bureaucracy to wage passive resistance.