AUSTIN, Texas — Texas must remove floating border buoys by Friday, Sept. 15, and cannot install any similar structures in the Rio Grande without receiving proper approval, a federal judge wrote Wednesday in a scathing ruling criticizing Gov. Greg Abbott for ignoring federal laws.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra wrote that he expects the Justice Department to prevail in its civil suit against Abbott. The Biden administration argues that Texas violated a federal law that forbids unauthorized construction in navigable waterways.
Texas argued the rules didn’t apply because the barrier is in a part of the river too shallow to be navigable. The state also said it has the right to self-defense under the U.S. Constitution, in this case to protect itself against a migrant “invasion.”
Ezra disagreed.
Under Texas’s logic, he wrote in the 42-page ruling, a state could declare it has been invaded, then wage war as it sees fit “subject to no oversight.”
“Such a claim is breathtaking,” the judge wrote.
Texas filed an appeal shortly after the court order came down.
It was not immediately clear if that means the state will refuse to comply pending a ruling from the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative appellate courts.
“This ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal,” Abbott said in a statement. “We will continue to utilize every strategy to secure the border, including deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers and installing strategic barriers.”
At the Justice Department, associate U.S. Attorney General Vanita Gupta said, “We are pleased that the court ruled that the barrier was unlawful and irreparably harms diplomatic relations, public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who recently led a delegation of lawmakers to Eagle Pass, also embraced the ruling.
“Abbott knows his actions are illegal. I’m glad the court is forcing him to remove his death traps from the Rio Grande. He has endangered lives, damaged Texas’ working relationship with our largest trading partner and let politics rather than sensible policy dictate his actions,” he said.
Abbott previously boasted that Texas was not “asking for permission” when it installed razor wire along 60 miles of border and the 1,000-foot floating barrier two miles downstream from Eagle Pass.
