Case: 22-40526 Document: 00516790840 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/16/2023 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED June 16, 2023 No. 22-40526 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk The General Land Office of the State of Texas, et al., Plaintiffs, v. President Joseph R. Biden, et al., Defendants, ______________________________ State of Missouri; State of Texas, Plaintiffs—Appellants, versus Joseph R. Biden, Jr., in his official capacity as President of the United States of America; United States of America; Alejandro Mayorkas, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security; United States Department of Homeland Security; Troy A. Miller, in his official capacity as Acting Commissioner of the United States Customs and Border Protection; United States Customs and Border Protection, Defendants—Appellees. Case: 22-40526 Document: 00516790840 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/16/2023 No. 22-40526 Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC Nos. 7:21-CV-420 & 7:21-CV-272 Before Jones, Smith, and Graves, Circuit Judges. Edith H. Jones, Circuit Judge: In 2018, the Department of Homeland Security declared, “Walls Work.” Indeed, DHS touted the effectiveness of its newly constructed border wall system. But in January 2021, President Biden ordered DHS to reverse course, ending all new border wall construction. Since then, encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border (the “southwest border”) have increased fivefold, from 458,088 in fiscal year 2020 to nearly 2.38 million in fiscal year 2022. 1 Texas and Missouri filed suit seeking to compel DHS to employ the $2.75 billion Congress allocated “for the construction of [a] barrier system along the southwest border” before those funds expire. The district court dismissed Texas for “claim splitting,” held that Missouri did not have standing to sue, and denied the States’ motion for a preliminary injunction as moot. We REVERSE and REMAND with instructions that the court expeditiously consider the States’ motion for a preliminary injunction. 1 Southwest Land Border Encounters, U.S. CUSTOMS & BORDER PROTECTION (last modified May 3, 2023), https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border- encounters. 2 Case: 22-40526 Document: 00516790840 Page: 3 Date Filed: 06/16/2023 No. 22-40526 BACKGROUND The Department of Homeland Security began construction of a new wall on the U.S. border with Mexico in February 2018. By October 2020, it had completed 386 miles of wall and had another 352 miles in progress. DHS declared the new border wall system a success: “[I]llegal drug, border crossings, and human smuggling activities” all decreased in areas where barriers were deployed. For instance, in the Yuma Sector, illegal entries in areas with a new border wall fell 87% between fiscal years 2019 and 2020. Likewise, the El Paso Sector “experienced a significant reduction in drug and smuggling activities in areas where the new border wall system was built.” Congress appropriated $1.375 billion in fiscal year 2020 “for the construction of [a] barrier system along the southwest border.” 2 DHS used those funds to award two contracts to construct approximately thirty-one miles of border wall in the Laredo Sector and entered into an Economy …
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