Houston
A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas can maintain the floating barriers it installed to deter migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border river Rio Grande. On Thursday, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay but did not provide further details. This decision comes after Federal District Judge David A. Ezra ordered on Wednesday that Texas, led by Republican officials, must remove the floating barriers by September 15 at its own expense and cease constructing additional obstructions in the river. Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters, Ezra wrote in his order. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office promptly appealed Ezra’s ruling, asserting that the state is prepared to take this fight all the way to the US Supreme Court. President Joe Biden’s administration filed a lawsuit against Texas in late July, alleging that the state and its Governor violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act by constructing a structure in the country’s water without permission from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Texas argued that the barrier isn’t a structure requiring authorization and that it had notified the International Boundary Water Commission, the binational body that regulates the Rio Grande, before installation. The Mexican government has repeatedly condemned the establishment of water barriers in the Rio Grande as a violation of our sovereignty.
