Judge Orders Texas to Remove Floating Border Barrier — Abbott Appeals Ruling

A federal judge in the Western District of Texas ordered the State of Texas to remove the floating border barriers put in place in July. Governor Greg Abbott announced he is appealing the ruling.

U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra ordered the State of Texas to remove the sections of floating border buoys from the Rio Grande placed in July near Eagle Pass, Texas. The judge ordered the removal by September 15, Fox 26 Houston.

Governor Abbott quickly responded, saying he would appeal the decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Texas will appeal. pic.twitter.com/jgeZ3Gt3OV

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 6, 2023

“Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along,” the Texas governor said in a written statement. “This ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal.”

Judge Ezra was initially appointed to the District of Hawaii by President Ronald Reagan and later reassigned as a senior judge to help the Western District of Texas by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Ezra wrote in his order that Governor Abbott said he was not “asking for permission” to build the border barrier.

“Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters,” the judge wrote. The judge also noted complaints from the Mexican president over the floating border barrier.

The judge also attacked Abbott’s assertion of an “invasion.”

Judge Ezra wrote:

And all Texas’s new argument does is ask the Court to take the additional step — beyond the nonjusticiable question of whether the federal government has failed to protect Texas from invasion — of sanctioning Texas’s assertion of plenary power to declare and respond to ‘all types of invasions, including invasions from non-state or quasistate actors.

Under this logic, once Texas decides, in its sole discretion, that it has been invaded, it is subject to no oversight of its ‘chosen means of waging war.’ Such a claim is breathtaking.

Abbott responded, writing:

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.

In July, Texas began installing the floating border barriers near Eagle Pass, one of the busiest border crossing areas in the nation, Breitbart Texas reported. The buoys were intended to deter border crossings and move migrants who cross to other centralized crossing points.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• WATCH: Texas Begins Construction of Historic Floating Border Barrier
• DOJ Demands Texas Remove Floating Border Barriers – ‘See You in Court,’ Says Governor
• Mexican President Calls Texas Governor ‘Inhumane, Immoral’ Over Border Bouys
• Governor Demands Biden Stop Risking Migrant Lives at Texas Border
• EXCLUSIVE: Texas Says State’s Border Security Op Effectively Moving Migrant Crossings to Other States

Since that time, the barriers have come under criticism from open border advocates, Democrat elected officials, the Biden administration, and the president of Mexico.

Later in July, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, claiming the State built the barrier in the Rio Grande without federal authorization.

Abbott ordered the deployment of the buoys under the State’s Operation Lone Star border security operation.