Armed Texas National Guard soldiers are now blocking federal agents from getting to the border, government alleges

• The US government alleges the Texas National Guard is blocking Border Patrol from accessing the border.
• The Justice Department said in a court filing that the National Guard put up razor-wire barriers.

Armed Texas National Guard soldiers are now blocking US Border Patrol agents from accessing the state's border with Mexico, the Justice Department has alleged in a court filing.

In a Friday filing to the Supreme Court, the department alleged that Texas National Guard members put up new razor-wire barriers along a roughly 2.5-mile stretch of the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The federal government alleged that Texas state officials also erected new fencing farther inland.

"That fencing further restricts Border Patrol's ability to reach the river in particular areas," the Justice Department said in the filing.

Border Patrol agents have requested access to certain areas along the stretch of the Rio Grande, but the Texas National Guard soldiers have refused to give them access, the federal government alleged.

The Texas Military Department, which oversees the Texas National Guard, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government said that before Wednesday evening, Border Patrol agents could drive trucks with mounted surveillance equipment to various locations in this area and that those trucks were used "to maintain visibility and awareness of activity along this stretch of the river and border."

"But the Texas National Guard has now blocked Border Patrol's access to the area, rendering its agents unable to place mobile surveillance trucks," the Justice Department said in the Friday filing.

"Border Patrol's ability to view this portion of the border is now limited to a narrow sliver from a single surveillance camera located outside of the newly fenced area," the federal government said.

The department said in the filing that the "new actions" by Texas "demonstrate an escalation of the State's measures to block Border Patrol's ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies."

The filing is part of a legal battle involving immigration enforcement at the border between the Biden administration and the Republican-controlled state.