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US Sues Texas For Blockading Rio Grande To Keep Out Migrants

TFW you pretend desperate families are a horde of Vikings armed with spears ... and fentanyl.

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Exhibit 2 (via US v. Abbott)

In the past week, we’ve been deluged with horror stories of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s performative cruelty to migrants. From the state trooper who reports being ordered to push families back into the water, to the 19-year-old woman caught in razor wire and miscarrying her child during the sweltering heat, Abbott’s use of human beings as props to demonstrate his boundless xenophobia get grosser every day.

Yesterday, the Justice Department sued to force Texas to remove a 1,000-foot floating barrier system the state placed in the middle of the Rio Grande to deter migrant crossings near Eagle Pass. The government contends that the system of giant buoys connected by chains violates the Rivers and Harbors Act, 33 U.S.C. § 403, which prohibits the “creation of any obstruction not affirmatively authorized by Congress, to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States.”

“We allege that Texas has flouted federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said yesterday.  “This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns.  Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy.”

The complaint, filed in the Western District of Texas, was preceded by the governor’s usual public chest thumping. In June, Abbott announced the plan to deploy the barrier as part of Operation Lone Star, the state’s plan to treat desperate migrants like an invading army and wrest control of border policy from the federal government.

“We’re securing the border at the border,” he boasted at a press conference surrounded by law enforcement officials.

Last week, US Attorney Jaime Esparza and AUSA Todd Kim sent Abbott a letter warning that the government intended to sue if the barrier was not removed.

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“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” they wrote.

Abbott responded with a harangue addressed to President Biden claiming that “All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws.” He went on to argue that the buoys do not violate the RHA’s ban on “wharf, pier, dolphin, boom, weir, breakwater, bulkhead, jetty, or other structures” in navigable waters, although he did not make that technical argument on Twitter.

In fact, migrant crossings between points of entry are down significantly since since the government implemented stricter asylum rules after the expiration of emergency COVID immigration policies under Title 42. But that won’t stop Abbott from howling that the US is being invaded.

Guess it’s time for Ron DeSantis to kidnap some more migrants. This time maybe he’ll fly them to Gnome — can’t let Abbott beat him out for the immigrant bashing-est governor in all the land, right?

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U.S. sues Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott declines to remove floating border barrier [TX Tribune]
US v. Abbott [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

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