Texas can keep its floating buoy barrier on the Rio Grande — at least for now, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted District Court Judge David Ezra’s order Wednesday that Texas remove a thousand-foot-long barrier that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott put up earlier this year in an effort to prevent smugglers and migrants from crossing the river border with Mexico.
The temporary stay will remain in place until the Fifth Circuit can hear Texas’ appeal of Wednesday’s district court order.
“If Texas must move the buoys from their current location, its right of appeal will effectively be lost because harm has been done to Texas’ sovereign self-defense and public safety interests,” attorneys for Abbott and the Lone Star State argued in their request for a stay.
“The buoy has been used under the Governor’s constitutional authority to defend Texas from transnational-criminal-cartel encroachment,” the Texas court filing in the fifth circuit continued.
“Moving the floats exacerbates the dangers to immigrants lured to cross the border illegally, and to Texans harmed by human trafficking, drug trafficking, and unchecked cartel violence.”
A temporary stay would allow Texas to keep the floating barrier in place for the time being. AP
A district judge ruled Wednesday that the Lone Star State must remove the 1,000-foot-long barrier. AFP via Getty Images
Ezra’s removal order is part of a preliminary injunction and not a final decision in the federal lawsuit.
The Justice Department sued Abbott in July, arguing he lacked the authority to order the deployment of the sea barrier.
Federal prosecutors also asserted that the rotating 4-foot-wide orange buoy erected in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, was a “threat to human life.”
The barrier was built near Eagle Pass, Texas, a hot spot for illegal border crossings. AP
Mexico has demanded that the buoy be removed from the Rio Grande as well.
A recent study by the International Boundary and Water Commission found that most buoys were originally placed in Mexican waters.
Abbott vowed Wednesday to take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.
“Today’s court ruling only extends President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas has the right to step up to do the job it should have been doing all along,” the three-term governor said.
“Our fight to defend Texas’ sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policy has only just begun.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
