National Guard soldiers laid out more fencing and concertina wire despite the rain that swept through the region Tuesday, according to video.
Politicians from both parties were furious Tuesday as the fight between Gov. Greg Abbott's (R-TX) border militarization effort and the Biden administration's defense of Border Patrol took a turn.
Abbott doubled down Tuesday and said state forces, deployed to the border since 2021 under Operation Lone Star, would continue to remain on-site despite the highest court's ruling.
"The Texas National Guard continues to hold the line in Eagle Pass," Abbott said in a post to X Tuesday afternoon. "Texas will not back down from our efforts to secure the border in Biden's absence."
Even billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk weighed in late Monday, reacting to a post about the federal government's lawsuits against Arizona and Texas efforts to bar illegal immigration.
"This administration is actively aiding illegal immigration," Musk, who owns and rebranded Twitter to X, wrote in a post.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, backed Abbott's defiance and said that he believed the Biden administration was "staging a civil war" in a post on X, though the White House has no say on how the Supreme Court decides cases.
"My thoughts are that the feds are staging a civil war, and Texas should stand their ground," Higgins said.
House Freedom Caucus member and Central Texan, Rep. Chip Roy, defended Austin from Washington and said Abbott had a "duty" to do as he had.
"They have a duty under the Constitution ... and every other norm of leadership of any sovereign state, to protect your citizens, period, full stop," Roy said in a Fox News interview Tuesday. "There is no exception to that. And if the Supreme Court wants to ignore that truth, which a slim majority did, Texas still had the duty, Texas leaders still have the duty, to defend their people.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) said on Monday evening that the state would continue its fight against the federal government after the Supreme Court ruling that vacated a federal appeal court's injunction that had temporarily prevented Border Patrol from taking down concertina wire as they rescue and apprehended immigrants who have illegally crossed the border.
"The Supreme Court's temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America," Paxton told Fox News. "The destruction of Texas's border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state's sovereignty."
The Biden administration did not respond to the CBS report that Texas was doubling down by installing more wire or if Border Patrol agents have been able to access riverfront areas of the border in Eagle Pass since state National Guard soldiers commandeered the 2.5-mile long area earlier this month in an effort to keep Border Patrol out.
"Rather than helping to reduce irregular migration, the State of Texas has only made it harder for frontline personnel to do their jobs and to apply consequences under the law," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Monday evening.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in the briefing room Tuesday that the administration was "certainly glad" about the Supreme Court decision because the injunction had "prevented" Border Patrol agents from doing their jobs, including the "humanitarian work."
"What Texas was doing, the governor was doing, was actually ineffective, and that's something that we have to remember. It was ineffective," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Abbott, Paxton, the Texas Military Department, and the DHS did not respond to requests for comment.
And expect Texas to threaten the Feds with secession.