A floating barrier that was installed in the Rio Bravo (or Grande) with the purpose of deter migrants from attempting to cross the border from Mexico to Texas can stay in place for now, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision by the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns an earlier decision by a panel of the same court. It is the latest development in the confrontation between Texas and the government of President Joe Biden for migration along the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border between Texas and Mexico.
In December, a divided appeals court panel upheld a decision by a federal district judge in Texas that said the buoys should be removed. On Tuesday, the full court said the court had abused its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction.
The broader district court lawsuit is scheduled for trial to begin Aug. 6, and in it the Biden administration accuses Texas of violating the federal Rivers and Harbors Act. Vanita Gupta, deputy attorney general, said Texas was “in violation of federal law” and could harm U.S. foreign policy.
The series of buoys attached and anchored in concrete It stretches roughly the length of three football fields at one of the most used points for illegal border crossings. The state installed it on the international border with Mexico, between the Texas city of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
The Justice Department had asked a federal court to order Texas to remove the buoys, arguing that the barrier raises humanitarian and environmental concerns along the international border.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has dismissed the lawsuit and is being cheered by conservative allies eager for rulings that would empower states to adopt more aggressive immigration measures.
The barrier is one of a number of legal disputes over border control between Biden and Abbott. The Biden administration is also fighting over the right to cut the border’s barbed wire and over access to a city park on the border that the state has closed off with fencing.
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