WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas over a floating barrier placed in the Rio Grande River, meant to keep illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S.
The barrier consists of buoys and razor wire and stretches 1,000 feet along a small part of the Texas-Mexico border.
In the suit, the DOJ says Texas violated federal law by not getting authorization from the Army Corp of Engineers and is calling for the removal of the barrier.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot defended his actions Monday night on Fox News.
“These devices have turned away and repelled tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who try to enter to the United States illegally,” he told Fox’s Bret Baier.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico walk past large buoys being deployed as a border barrier on the river in Eagle Pass, Texas, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Abbot also said the DOJ’s lawsuit is based on an obscure statute.
“It’s not grounded in law whatsoever,” he argued. “We will take this lawsuit all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”
In a letter to President Joe Biden, Abbot insists Texas has “sovereign interest in protecting” its borders, writing, “See you in court, Mr. President.”
The White House says Abbot’s actions are unlawful and dangerous and risk the lives of border patrol agents and illegal immigrants.
“What you see the governor doing is dangerous in an unlawful, and it’s actually hurting the process,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday.
The barrier first made headlines after an unnamed state trooper called the buoys and wire “nothing but a inhumane trap” in an email to a superior.
Meanwhile, the latest numbers from the Bureau of Customs and Border Patrol show the encounters at the southern border are down more than 30 percent, the lowest in more than two years.
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