On Thursday night, a panel of three federal judges for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a victory by granting the state's request to keep a controversial floating barrier in place in the Rio Grande along the Texas-Mexico border while the case is on appeal. The decision stops the ruling from a federal judge in Austin on Wednesday that ordered the state of Texas to remove more than 1,000 feet of large orange buoys with serrated metal discs between them and netting attached beneath that have been in the border river since July. No further hearings are currently scheduled.
The preliminary injunction on Wednesday noted that the state had installed the barrier “without authorization of any kind, save the Governor’s directive.” The controversial floating barrier is a part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s high-cost and hotly debated border program, Operation Lone Star.
Judge David A. Ezra, who in August indicated he was against having the buoys in the river, ruled that not only must the barriers be removed, but that the state may not build further "structures or obstructions in the navigable waters of the United States.”
“Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier,” read the preliminary injunction. “Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters.”
These decisions mark the latest developments regarding the battle between the Texas governor and the Biden administration over how to most effectively handle immigration and border security.
“Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters.” – Judge David A. Ezra
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In July, when the orange buoy system was still new, the Houston Chronicle released a devastating report including leaked trooper emails from the Texas Department of Public Safety. In those emails, a trooper described a pregnant teen being caught in razor wire and a family being denied water and being pushed back into the river, among other stunning actions he described as “policies” and that some elected officials in the state deemed "inhumane."
In August, critics lashed out at Abbott, calling the buoy barrier “death traps” after two bodies were discovered stuck in the buoys.
All along, Abbott has stood defiant in his comments, deflecting all possible blame toward Washington, D.C., and failing to express even a modicum of sympathy to those who have suffered injuries and death along the border.
“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally," Abbott noted in a statement provided to the Observer in August, following the Chronicle report. "The absence of razor wire and other deterrence strategies encourages migrants to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry, while making the job of Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers more dangerous and difficult."
The temporary injunction noted that although the Rio Grande isn’t necessarily used as a commercial waterway, the water is still navigable. Therefore, according to the judge, permission from the Army Corps of Engineers must be obtained to place such a barrier in the river.
Gov. Abbott released a statement saying on Wednesday after Ezra's injunction was handed down, reading in part that the ruling “merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along.”
