Photo: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images
A federal court of appeals agreed to Texas’ request to leave its floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande on Thursday nighta victory for the state that overturned a federal judge’s order issued a day earlier, according to the Texas Tribune.
U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ruled Wednesday that Texas must remove a series of buoys, installed to discourage undocumented immigrants from crossing the Rio Grande, siding with the federal government that sued the Greg Abbott administration for placing the barrier in an international waterway.
The 1,000-foot-long row of buoys, separated by sharp, jagged saw blades and supporting a submerged mesh net, has floated midriver next to Eagle Pass since July, prompting protests from both the Mexican government and the US. immigrant advocates.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office immediately appealed Ezra’s ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, saying in a statement following Ezra’s order that he “is prepared to take this fight all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.” .
“Today’s court decision simply continues President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is legitimately stepping up to do the job it should have been doing all along,” the statement said. “We will continue to use all strategies to secure the border, including the deployment of Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety soldiers and the installation of strategic barriers.”
A floating “wall” without legal authorization
The controversial border buoys were deployed in the Rio Grande as part of Operation Lone Star, Abbott’s border security initiative, which claims to stop the arrival of undocumented immigrants from Mexico through its border with Texas.
In July, the Department of Justice sued the state of Texas claiming that the buoys were installed illegally and asking the judge to force the state to remove them.
In the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the Justice Department alleged that Texas and Abbott violated the River and Harbor Appropriation Act by building a structure in United States waters without the permission of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and they requested an injunction to prevent Texas from building additional barriers on the river.
Meanwhile, the Republican governor has argued that the buoys are intended to deter migrants from crossing into the state from Mexico.
Meanwhile, Texas maintains that it has constitutional authority to deploy the floating barriers. At times, Judge Ezra requested that the state’s attorneys focus on the buoys and they didn’t dive into other issues like fentanyl and illegal immigration in general, on the southern border of the United States.
Keep reading:
– Texas judge holds first hearing in lawsuit against buoy barrier on the Rio Grande
– Judge ordered Texas government to remove floating buoy fence on Rio Grande
– Mexico demands the definitive removal of the Texas floating buoy fence after court order