The injunction is the second time that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has sided with Texas in a yearlong dispute over barbed wire around the city of Eagle Pass.

Officials in border states are bracing for a possible surge of migrants to the border as illegal crossers rush to try to get into the US before President-elect Trump takes office.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had sued the Biden administration after Border Patrol agents had cut the razor wire.

The move by Gov. Greg Abbott, flouting a federal challenge, signaled that Texas expects to have a freer hand on the border under President-elect Donald J. Trump.

A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled that Border Patrol agents cannot cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border in the town of Eagle Pass, which has become the center of the state’s aggressive measures to curb migrant crossings.

A divided U.S. appeals court blocked the Biden administration from destroying razor-wire fencing that Texas placed along its border with Mexico to deter illegal migration. The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.