Afederal judge issued an extraordinary temporary restraining order Monday barring the Biden administration from destroying or tampering with a temporary concertina wire fence installed by Texas to protect its border with Mexico.
Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses, in Del Rio, ruled Texas had a likelihood of prevailing it its lawsuit and would suffer significant harm if federal officials were allowed to keep dismantling the fence.
The decision dealt a stinging rebuke to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a win for states seeking to enforce border security on their own in the absence of help from the federal government.
More than 10 million immigrants have illegally entered the United States under President Joe Biden's policies, federal data shows.
