AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Department will appear in federal court Tuesday to argue that Gov. Greg Abbott's (R-TX) latest border security installation of a string of buoys in the Rio Grande is illegal because it obstructs a U.S. waterway.
The Biden administration will push Judge David Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to side against the Abbott administration after the state debuted a floating barrier in 1,000 feet of the river that separates the United States from Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas.
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Outside the courthouse, immigrant advocates gathered to support the Biden administration shortly before the hearing commenced inside.
The ILRC is live in Austin, TX showing solidarity for our local partners from Eagle Pass and Texas community in front of the Austin Federal Courthouse speaking out against @GregAbbott_TX’s border buoys and the heinous #OperationLoneStar ???? pic.twitter.com/7aOJLaPjjx
— Immigrant Legal Resource Center (@the_ILRC) August 22, 2023
The Biden administration first asked Abbott to take down the buoys on July 20. Abbott refused and told Washington in a letter, "Texas will see you in court, Mr. President."
The DOJ sued Abbott in late July and ordered the removal of the buoys, alleging they violated the Rivers and Harbors Act, which bars the obstruction of U.S. waterways. The DOJ has also asked Ezra, a Reagan appointee, to block the state from installing any more buoys.
“Texas’s deployment of the Floating Barrier has caused significant and ongoing harm to the United States’ foreign relations with Mexico,” the DOJ wrote in a filing on July 26. “Mexico has specifically asserted that Texas’s actions contravene various treaty obligations and has raised humanitarian concerns regarding possible loss of life to persons swimming in the Rio Grande."
House Republicans from Texas have backed Abbott and blamed President Joe Biden for the 6 million noncitizens who have been encountered attempting to enter the U.S. without permission since he took office.
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Republicans, including Abbott, have accused Biden of failing to protect the U.S., justifying the state's actions.
"It's one thing that the federal government has refused to secure the border and Texas has had to spend so much money," Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) said during the press conference on July 27. "It's another thing when they actually get in our way and tell us we have to stop securing our border."