The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that Texas can keep its floating border barrier preventing illicit crossings across the Rio Grande.
After Senior U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra ordered Texas officials to dismantle the floating barricades constructed by Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), the Appeals Court approved Texas’ plea for an administrative stay.
Abbott’s legal team said on Thursday that “buoys have nearly eliminated illegal crossings of people and drugs where they’ve been placed.”
Ezra’s order came after the Justice Department sued Texas over the barrier, citing environmental and humanitarian concerns. Ezra, a Reagan appointment, claimed Texas’ activities violated the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA).
“The Court finds that the barrier’s threat to human life, its impairment to free and safe navigation, and its contraindication to the balance of priorities Congress struck in the RHA outweigh Texas’s interest in implementing its buoy barrier in the Rio Grande River,” the judge wrote. “The harm to navigation is clearly evident from the evidence presented, while the State of Texas did not present any credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration across the Rio Grande River.”
Abbott argued that Ezra’s ruling was wrong and vowed that Texas would challenge it.
“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.”
Illegal crossings remain high because the majority of foreign nationals entering the United States are processed and given a court date before being released. According to recent statistics, over 177,000 persons were detained in August 2023 for illegally entering the United States.
In the same month, 91,000 illegal immigrants crossed with their families, the biggest number ever. The figure is 7,000 more than the previous high, reached in May 2019. According to the New York Times, the number of children crossing each day increased from 270 in July to 377 in August.
