The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just delivered a big victory for border security in a ruling on the floating border barrier Texas installed along the Rio Grande to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. The court ruled that Texas can keep its floating border barrier for now, granting an administrative stay after a District Court judge ordered the floating barrier removed.
As background, the district court ruling had ordered Texas to dismantle the floating border barrier because of concerns surrounding its environmental impact, the “harm to navigation” it presents, humanitarian concerns, and because it allegedly violates the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA) of 1899.
“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.
He continued, “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.”
Continuing, the governor’s office vowed to continue defending the border, saying, “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. Our battle to defend Texas’ sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policies has only begun. Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Further, when the Los Angeles Times reported that the Biden Administration was considering forcing Texas to keep illegal immigrants inside its borders instead of shipping them to blue states, Gov. Abbott vowed to keep sending busses full of illegals to blue cities.
Posting about the matter on X (formerly known as Twitter), Gov. Abbott said, “Biden considers forcing migrant families to remain in Texas. This scam was tried years ago & was shot down by a judge. We will send Biden the same swift justice. And, we will add even more buses of migrants to Washington D.C.”
Biden considers forcing migrant families to remain in Texas.
This scam was tried years ago & was shot down by a judge.
We will send Biden the same swift justice.
And, we will add even more buses of migrants to Washington D.C.https://t.co/732FdGZ8jB
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 8, 2023
Commenting on the report, a DHS spokesperson claimed that the Biden Administration “is committed to expanding safe and orderly pathways for migrants to lawfully enter the United States, while imposing consequences to those who fail to use those pathways.”
“Since May 2023, DHS has removed or returned over 200,000 individuals, including over 17,000 individual family unit members. DHS continuously holds policy and operational discussions on how to leverage our authorities to ensure a fair, humane, and effective immigration process that efficiently removes those without a lawful basis to stay in the country,” the spokesperson added.
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