In June 2023, the U.S. sued Texas, arguing that a floating barrier in the Rio Grande was a violation of the Rivers and Harbors Act, because the state did not obtain a permit to construct the barrier without permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A central question in the case has been whether the 1,000-foot-long string of buoys near Eagle Pass, Texas, was placed in navigable waters, which would make it subject to the act, Courthouse News reports. But on The Fifth Circuit Tuesday dealt a blow to the federal government's attempt at getting a preliminary injunction. A three-judge panel with the New Orleans-based appeals court previously upheld the lower court's injunction. However, the state petitioned for an en banc rehearing of the case, leading to Tuesday's ruling.
The series of linked, concrete-anchored buoys stretches roughly the length of three soccer fields 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 Associated Press reports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has waved off the lawsuit as he is cheered on by conservative allies who are 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 also is fighting for the right to cut razor-wire fencing at the border and for access to a city park at the border that the state fenced off.
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