The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the floating barrier in the Rio Grande, intended to deter migrants from crossing from Mexico into Texas, may remain in place. This week's decision by the full court overturned a previous decision by a panel of the court, Politico reports. The ruling is the latest development in a standoff between Texas and President Joe Biden’s administration over immigration on the state’s 1,200-mile border with Mexico. In December, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit had sided with a federal district judge in Texas who said the buoys must be moved. The entire appeals court on Tuesday said the court abused its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction. The broader lawsuit in district court is set for a trial beginning on Aug. 6, where the Biden administration accuses Texas of violating the federal Rivers and Harbor Act. Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general, said Texas “flouted federal law” and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy.
The series of linked, concrete-anchored buoys stretches roughly the length of three soccer fields through the Rio Grande in one of the busiest hotspots for illegal border crossings. The state installed it along the international border with Mexico between the Texas border city of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila. The Justice Department had asked a federal court to order Texas to remove the buoys, saying the water barrier poses humanitarian and environmental concerns along the international boundary. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, waved off the lawsuit, cheered on by allies eager for cases that would empower states to take on more aggressive immigration measures. The barrier is one focal point in the legal disputes over border control between the Democratic president and Abbott. The Biden administration is also fighting for the right to cut razor-wire fencing at the border and access to a city park at the border that the state fenced off.
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