{"id":17589,"date":"2023-09-07T06:13:52","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T11:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17589"},"modified":"2023-09-07T06:13:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T11:13:56","slug":"court-orders-texas-to-remove-anti-migrant-rio-grande-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17589","title":{"rendered":"Court orders Texas to remove anti-migrant Rio Grande barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday ordered the state to remove buoys it set up in the Rio Grande to deter migration as part of its Operation Lone Star.
The order came as part of a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration against Texas, arguing in large part that the state had no right to install structures in federal navigable waterways.
Governor [Greg] Abbott [R] announced that he was not \u2018asking for permission\u2019 for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier,\u201d District Judge David Alan Ezra wrote.
\u201cUnfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation\u2019s navigable waters.\u201d
Texas is ordered to remove the buoys by Sept. 15, but Abbott indicated just minutes after the ruling that the state plans to appeal the decision and will continue to use other \u201cstrategic barriers.\u201d
The floating buoys cover 1,000 feet in the Rio Grande with anchors in the riverbed. They are arranged in a chain stretching up- and down-river, each separated by a rounded blade with serrated edges similar to a circular saw.
The buoys were put in place around July 10, installed just days after four migrants, including an infant, drowned trying to cross the river.\u00a0
The installation was one of several measures taken by Abbott as part of Operation Lone Star, but it has proven the most controversial, creating significant tensions with Mexico.
Ezra noted Mexico\u2019s formal diplomatic complaints on the matter in his decision as a factor in establishing the harm caused to the plaintiff justifying an injunction.
The ruling was deeply critical of Texas\u2019s arguments to defend the installation, in particular the idea that the state is allowed any means to respond to any act it considers an \u201cinvasion.\u201d
\u201cAnd all Texas\u2019s new argument does is ask the Court to take the additional step \u2014 beyond the nonjusticiable question of whether the federal government has failed to protect Texas from invasion \u2014 of sanctioning Texas\u2019s assertion of plenary power to declare\u00a0and respond to \u2018all types of invasions, including invasions from non-state or quasistate actors,’\u201d Ezra wrote.\u00a0
\u201cUnder this logic, once Texas decides, in its sole discretion, that it has been invaded, it is subject to no oversight of its \u2018chosen means of waging war.\u2019 Such a claim is breathtaking.\u201d
Abbott said Wednesday Texas would continue to use other shows of force at the border and criticized\u00a0President Biden,\u00a0claiming, \u201cTexas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along.\u201d
\u201cThis ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal. 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,\u201d\u00a0Abbott said.
\u201cOur battle to defend Texas\u2019 sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden\u2019s open border policies has only begun. Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u201d
The Department of Justice in late July had urged a judge to order the buoys removed within 10 days.
\u201cGovernor Abbott\u2019s suggestion that Texas can violate the [Rivers and Harbors Act] in service of its own policy priorities inverts the Supremacy Clause and controverts Supreme Court precedent recognizing the federal government\u2019s plenary power over immigration and foreign affairs,\u201d the Justice Department wrote in the filing.\u00a0
thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday ordered the state to remove buoys it set up in the Rio Grande to deter migration as part of its Operation Lone Star.The order came as part of a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration against Texas, arguing in large part that the state had no right to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4355,6395,1298],"class_list":["post-17589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-courts","tag-rio-grande","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17591,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions\/17591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}