Texas Guard personnel involved in Operation Lone Star monitor the Rio Grande from behind a barrier of razor wire installed by the state.
In a scathing order accusing Gov. Greg Abbott of ignoring U.S. laws, a federal judge has ordered Texas to remove a floating barrier the governor ordered installed in the Rio Grande River to block migrants from crossing, theU.S. District Judge David Ezra on Tuesday ordered Texas to remove its bright-orange buoys by Sept. 15 and prohibited state officials from replacing them with another obstacle, according to the, arguing that federal law bans unapproved construction work in navigable rivers.
“The Court has found that the United States is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that Defendants have violated” the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, Austin-based Ezra wrote, according to the. “The Court also finds that Texas’s [sic] conduct irreparably harms the public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande.”
Texas has already filed an appeal of the decision. In an emailed statement, Abbott said Ezra's ruling"merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal" to let Texas enact its own border safeguards. Abbott has repeatedly argued, erroneously, that the White House isn't enforcing federal immigration laws.