Abbott defies Biden DOJ order to remove floating barrier: ‘See you in court, Mr. President’
Anna Giaritelli
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AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is refusing to take down floating barriers in the Rio Grande in direct defiance of the Biden administration’s order to remove the buoys.
“Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,” Abbott wrote in a letter sent to President Joe Biden Monday. “Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”
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In the letter Monday, Abbott accused the Biden administration of enabling the border crisis over the past two and a half years, which has resulted in more than 5 million noncitizens apprehended while crossing illegally since Biden took office.
“If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws,” Abbott wrote in the letter. “By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River. You can also help me save Texans, and indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking. To end the risk that migrants will be harmed crossing the border illegally, you must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry.”
The issue of concern impacts a 1,000-foot portion of the border, roughly one-fifth of a mile on the 2,000-mile southern boundary.
On July 20, the DOJ sent Abbott and Texas Interim Attorney General Angela Colmenero a letter providing notice of intent to pursue legal action over the red buoy system in Eagle Pass.
DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division spokesman Matthew Nies told the Washington Examiner in an email Friday that the buoys violated section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, 33 U.S.C. § 403.
The DOJ added that federal law bars the “creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers.”
The legal action came after the White House strongly criticized Texas’s border fence,
“I can’t speak to the legal piece of the wires,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press conference. “What I can say is that we’re going to continue to condemn any actions, these types of actions, that [Abbott] takes. When it comes to treating these immigrants in an inhumane way, that we’ll be very clear about.”
Abbott announced on June 8 that the state would erect a maritime wall. Texas moved forward with the installation in early July despite being sued by an Eagle Pass-based kayak tour company days earlier.
Epi’s Canoe and Kayak Team owner Jesse Fuentes sued Abbott over the buoys on the basis that he would be “unable to conduct tours and canoe and kayak sessions in Eagle Pass because of the installation of the buoys” and will sustain “imminent and irreparable harm.”
The lawsuit argued that Abbott’s use of the Texas Disaster Act was unfounded.
“We will see you in court,” Abbott tweeted on July 7 in response to the business’s lawsuit. “And don’t think the Travis Co. Court will be the end of it. This is going to the Supreme Court. Texas has a constitutional right to secure our border.”
Mexico has also taken legal action and filed a complaint in mid-July and announced plans to investigate how the buoys are impacting the country.
Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena sent Abbott a complaint on June 26, two weeks before their debut. Barcena claimed the buoys go against the water treaty of 1944, which dictates how the water from the Rio Grande is used.
“We are sending a mission, a territorial inspection to see where the buoys are located … to carry out this topographical survey to verify that they do not cross into Mexican territory,” Barcena said during a press conference.
Abbott initially said in June that the barrier would serve as another layer of border security and deter immigrants from crossing in certain areas and funnel people who do cross to other parts of the river where federal and state officials can apprehend them.
“When we’re dealing with 100 or 1,000 people, one of the goals is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible,” Abbott said on June 8. “Some may eventually get to the border where they are going to face that multi-layered razor wire and a full force of National Guard and DPS officers.”
The impending DOJ lawsuit is not related to separate concerns about a rising number of injuries and deaths of immigrants as a result of attempting to cross the border into Eagle Pass. The state’s concertina wire and buoys have made crossing so treacherous that one Texas Department of Public Safety trooper-medic told his superior these border policies “have stepped over the line into the inhumane,” according to an email he sent that was obtained by the Washington Examiner.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Eighty House Democrats rallied together on July 21 in a call for the Biden administration to intervene in Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative.
Locals told the Washington Examiner in June they were optimistic about the idea of a maritime barrier but worried the measure was already too little, too late.
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