AUSTIN, Texas — The federal government took sudden action this week to protect two rare mussel species in the Rio Grande, in the exact spot of the river where Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has installed a 1,000-foot line of buoys to block immigrants from crossing.
The Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it would list two species of freshwater mussels, including the Mexican fawnsfoot, as endangered.
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That same day, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Abbott that ordered the state to take down the floating barrier in Eagle Pass because it posed “threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns.” The lawsuit centers on a 1,000-foot portion of the border, roughly one-fifth of a mile on the 2,000-mile southern boundary.
The White House and the FWS did not respond to requests for comment about the timing of the proposal or if it was a political attempt to interfere with Abbott's buoys.
An endangerment declaration could force Abbott to take down a 1,000-foot-long string of large red buoys and prevent the state from dropping more buoys in the border river because it is a “critical habitat.”
For more than three decades, the federal government has been aware of the shrinking population of these mussels. FWS first called attention to the mussels in 1991, when it published a notice in the Federal Register at the time that outlined its plans to review whether the invertebrate animal should be added to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
The last review of the mussels was done in February this year. The FWS’s Albuquerque, New Mexico, office determined in a 109-page report on the status of the mussels that a portion of the river from Eagle Pass toward the Gulf of Mexico was the only place in the world where these mussels existed.
Mussels are "biological indicators of healthy streams and rivers that benefit people and wildlife," according to FWS.
FWS concluded it would decline “from a ‘low’ current condition to ‘very low’ over the next 25 years; however, we project the species will be extinct 50 years into the future.”
Those results were in line with what FWS announced in a press release Monday.
"In making this proposed listing determination, the Service carefully assessed the status of the Rio Grande mussels, including the past, present and future threats that they face,” said Amy Lueders, FWS's Southwest regional director, in a statement. “Because the single existing populations of both species have low abundance, limited recruitment, and no ability to disperse into new areas, they are extremely vulnerable to extinction.”
Since being sued earlier this week, Abbott has refused to take down floating barriers in the Rio Grande in direct defiance of the Biden administration's order to remove the buoys.
“Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,” Abbott wrote in a letter sent to Biden on Monday. “Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”
Abbott announced on June 8 that the state would erect a maritime wall.
"When we're dealing with 100 or 1,000 people, one of the goals is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible," Abbott said at the time. "Some may eventually get to the border where they are going to face that multi-layered razor wire and a full force of National Guard and DPS officers."
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Texas moved forward with the installation of the buoys in early July despite being sued by an Eagle Pass-based kayak tour company days earlier. Mexico also filed a complaint over the buoys, citing a violation of a water treaty.
Locals told the Washington Examiner in June they were optimistic about the idea of a maritime barrier but worried the measure was already too little, too late.