The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Friday that Texas must remove a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande installed to deter migrants from illegally crossing the border with Mexico.
The appeals court therefore rejected the State of Texas’ request to overturn an earlier decision by a federal judge that required Texas to remove a water barrier installed on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
The decision was a victory for President Joe Biden’s administration and a blow to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to stem a record flow of migrants from Mexico trying to cross into the United States without documentation.
The court determined that the shallow waters where the barrier buoys were installed were navigable, which meant Texas had to first obtain permission to install them from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Biden administration maintains that the barrier illegally impedes shipping and raises humanitarian concerns. The Rio Grande marks the border of the United States with neighboring Mexico.
After the Biden administration sued Texas to remove the barrier, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered the state to move the buoys to the U.S. side of the river pending the outcome of the trial.
Texas reserves the right to ask the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case en banc.
Judge Don Willett, a Trump appointee, wrote a dissenting opinion, questioning whether the section of the Rio Grande where the buoys were installed is navigable. This section of the river is considered dangerous and cannot be used for commercial traffic, Willett said.
Floating barriers are one of the strategies Governor Abbott is using to prevent migrants from crossing the border by river. At the initiative of the state authorities, rolls of barbed wire were also installed on the banks of the river. A federal judge on Thursday rejected Texas’ request to stop federal immigration officials from destroying a barbed wire fence.
