Texas Must Move Floating Barrier on Rio Grande, Appeals Court Rules

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande, which had drawn backlash from Mexico. This decision deals a blow to one of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's aggressive measures aimed at stopping migrants from entering the U.S. illegally.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas to stop any work on the approximately 1,000-foot barrier and relocate it to the riverbank. This ruling supports a lower court decision made in September, which Abbott had criticized and predicted would be overturned.

This marks Texas' second legal defeat this week regarding its border operations. On Wednesday, a federal judge allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to continue cutting razor wire that the state had installed along the riverbank, despite objections from Texas officials.

For months, Texas has argued that certain parts of the Rio Grande are not subject to federal laws protecting navigable waters. However, the judges in this case agreed with the lower court's decision, which favored the Biden administration.

"It considered the threat to navigation and federal government operations on the Rio Grande, as well as the potential threat to human life the floating barrier created," Judge Dana Douglas wrote in the opinion.

Abbott called the decision "clearly wrong" in a statement on social media, and said the state would immediately seek a rehearing from the court.

"We'll go to SCOTUS if needed to protect Texas from Biden's open borders," Abbott posted.

The Biden administration sued Abbott over the linked and anchored buoys — which stretch roughly the length of three soccer fields — after the state installed the barrier along the international border with Mexico. The buoys are between the Texas border city of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila.

Thousands of people were crossing into the U.S. illegally through the area when the barrier was installed. The lower district court ordered the state to move the barriers in September, but Texas' appeal temporarily delayed that order from taking effect.

The Biden administration sued under what is known as the Rivers and Harbors Act, a law that protects navigable waters.

In a dissent, Judge Don Willet, an appointee of former President Donald Trump and a former Texas Supreme Court justice, said the order to move the barriers won't dissolve any tensions that the Biden administration said have been ramping up between the U.S. and Mexico governments.

"If the district court credited the United States' allegations of harm, then it should have ordered the barrier to be not just moved but removed," Willet wrote. "Only complete removal would eliminate the "construction and presence" of the barrier and meet Mexico's demands."

Nearly 400,000 people attempted to enter the United States through the section of the southwest border that includes Eagle Pass in the last fiscal year.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra, in the lower court's decision, expressed skepticism about Texas' justification for the barrier. He stated that the state failed to provide any "credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration."

There was no immediate response from officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.