Texas Judge Questions If State Is Really Impeding US Border Work

DEL RIO, Texas—In the second day of a hearing on Texas’ southern border, a federal judge who has lived on the border most of her life questioned whether the state’s actions to take control of illegal crossings were actually interfering with the federal government’s own work there.

Interrupting testimony from US Border Patrol’s chief of law enforcement operations, US District Judge Alia Moses of the Western District of Texas asked, “Who gets to decide when it’s impeding you or not? What constitutes impede?”

David BeMiller of the US Border Patrol was testifying that the turf war between Texas and the ...