Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) got bad news on Wednesday when a federal judge ordered him not to construct any more "migrant barrier" buoys in the Rio Grande -- and to remove the existing ones by Sept. 15.

The DOJ originally threatened to sue Abbott in July, saying he'd be hit with a suit if he doesn't commit to removing the purportedly life-threatening buoys his own people installed in the Rio Grande earlier that month. When there was no action from the governor, the Justice Department filed suit, seeking a preliminary injunction in the case.

Judge David Alan Ezra on Wednesday granted the government's motion, saying it's likely to succeed on the merits of its claim -- that the buoys violate the law and that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.

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Ezra further noted that Texas' "conduct irreparably harms the public safety, navigation, and the operation of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande."

The order enjoins Abbott from building new buoys or blockades, and requires them to be removed by Sept. 15, according to now-public court records.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office immediately appealed Ezra’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, saying in a statement it “is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along,” the statement says.

NonServiam wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 7:24 pm I want to see Abbot attempt the trek many of these PEOPLE make in search of a better life. No help. No money. No map. No compass. No water but what he can find on the journey. Nothing but the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. Dude would be righteously bodied by the elements before he ever set sights on the Rio. And the geographical location in which he plopped out of a vagina and the purpoted love of and reverence for same wouldn't help him one bit. A worthy candidate for self-inflicted lead poisoning of the brain if there ever was one.

Texas immediately appealed the ruling to the conservative-leaning 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Abbott's office said it was willing to take the case to the Supreme Court if needed.

"Our battle to defend Texas' sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden's open border policies has only begun," the governor's office said in a statement.

sikacz wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 7:28 pm

NonServiam wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 7:24 pm I want to see Abbot attempt the trek many of these PEOPLE make in search of a better life. No help. No money. No map. No compass. No water but what he can find on the journey. Nothing but the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. Dude would be righteously bodied by the elements before he ever set sights on the Rio. And the geographical location in which he plopped out of a vagina and the purpoted love of and reverence for same wouldn't help him one bit. A worthy candidate for self-inflicted lead poisoning of the brain if there ever was one.

True, his wheelchair wouldn’t make the trek, likely break down. Not that he would make it even if he was able bodied. Never could understand how a runner wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings and let a tree fall on himself.

A federal appeals court Thursday put on hold a judge's order from earlier this week requiring Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to remove a floating barrier from the middle of the Rio Grande. The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allowed Abbott, a Republican, to leave in place for now the 1,000-foot barrier the state installed to deter illegal migrant crossings. The order was issued by a three-judge panel of two Democratic appointees and a Republican appointee. Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra had ordered that the barrier moved out of the main waterway to the bank of the Rio Grande on the Texas side by Sept. 15, granting the Justice Department's request for a preliminary injunction while the case is litigated.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Abbott's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night. Lawyers for Texas have characterized illegal crossings at the southern border as an invasion that the state has a right to defend against. "The buoys were deployed under the Governor’s constitutional authority to defend Texas from transnational-criminal-cartel invasion," they wrote in a motion Thursday. "Moving the buoys exacerbates dangers to migrants enticed to cross the border unlawfully, and to Texans harmed by human trafficking, drug smuggling, and unchecked cartel violence."

The Justice Department argued in its filing that temporarily blocking the lower court's ruling would delay "preparatory work" and threaten "Texas’s ability to comply with the repositioning deadline prescribed by the district court." The appeals court action is the latest in a battle between Abbott and the Biden administration over the floating barrier near Eagle Pass. After Wednesday's ruling, Abbott struck a defiant tone and vowed that Texas was prepared to take the fight "all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Justice Department attorneys initiated the court battle in July with a civil suit that said Texas had violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act, an 1899 law that deems the unauthorized obstruction of the country’s navigable waters “unlawful unless the work has been recommended by the Chief of Engineers and authorized by the Secretary of the Army.” Texas countered that the Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction over a "non-navigable river stretch" in Maverick County, where the barrier is located.

Appeals Court Tells Texas to Remove Rio Grande Buoy 'Death Traps'

A federal appellate court panel on Friday delivered a blow to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's anti-migrant regime, ruling 2-1 that the state must remove from the Rio Grande a buoy barrier intended to block people from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Texas and Abbott over the buoys, which are part of the governor's Operation Lone Star, in July. U.S. Judge David A. Ezra of the Western District of Texas, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, ordered the state to remove the barrier and prohibited new or additional blockades in September.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit initially blocked Ezra's ruling while it considered the case, but Judges Dana Douglas and Carolyn Dineen King—respectively appointed by President Joe Biden and former President Jimmy Carter—affirmed his decision that the buoys violate federal law on Friday. Judge Don Willett, an appointee of ex-President Donald Trump, dissented.

The lower court "considered the threat to navigation and federal government operations on the Rio Grande, as well as the potential threat to human life the floating barrier created," Douglas wrote for the majority. "All of the district court's findings of fact were well supported by the record, and its conclusion... was not an abuse of discretion."

American Immigration Council policy director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick suggested on social media that the case turned out the way it did, even though the 5th Circuit is the most conservative U.S. appeals court, "in part because the panel draw was a very good one for the DOJ."

Abbott said Friday that the decision "is clearly wrong," that he and GOP state Attorney General Ken Paxton "will seek an immediate rehearing by the entire court," and that they will seek intervention from the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court "if needed."'

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily halted a lower court order that gave Border Patrol agents legal cover to continue cutting concertina wire that Texas has installed on the banks of the Rio Grande. U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of Del Rio on Wednesday ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which wanted the judge to order Border Patrol agents to stop cutting the wire. Moses said Texas didn’t provide enough evidence to show the federal government has violated the law, but she criticized the federal government’s immigration policy in general. Paxton’s office appealed the order the following day, and on Monday the New Orleans-based appeals court issued a stay on Moses’ ruling and gave the Biden administration until Friday to respond.

“I am pleased the court recognized the extent of the federal government’s blatant and disturbing efforts to subvert law and order at our State’s border with Mexico,” Paxton said in a statement on Monday. Paxton sued the Biden administration in October, claiming that Border Patrol agents illegally destroyed state property when its agents cut through the state’s concertina wire to “assist” migrants to “illegally cross” the border. In court documents, the Biden administration has said that Border Patrol agents cut the wire to provide medical help to migrants in distress or when migrants have already crossed the Rio Grande into U.S. territory and must be apprehended.

Within the past three years, the Texas Military Department has spent $11 million to place 70,000 rolls of concertina wire in different parts of the Texas-Mexico border, most notably in Eagle Pass, where migrants have been seriously injured trying to get through the wire. About 29 miles of wire have been rolled out in Maverick County, which includes Eagle Pass.

TrueTexan wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 1:26 pm I am surprised that the Federal government hasn't argued the border with a foreign country is solely under the domain of the Federal Government for enforcement of protection, immigration and trade.

sig230 wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 4:17 pm They have argued that and Abbott simply ignores it, rewords instructions and goes his way.

sikacz wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 4:54 pm

sig230 wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 4:17 pm They have argued that and Abbott simply ignores it, rewords instructions and goes his way.

Time for the federal government to send in the military and restore order. Perhaps the California national guard! LoL!

TrueTexan wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:35 am

sikacz wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 4:54 pm

sig230 wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 4:17 pm They have argued that and Abbott simply ignores it, rewords instructions and goes his way.

Time for the federal government to send in the military and restore order. Perhaps the California national guard! LoL!

Biden needs to pull an Eisenhower and send in the 101st Airborne.

Schumer is planning to move ahead Wednesday with a procedural vote on the president’s supplemental package despite the fact Republicans have vowed to vote against its advancement. Schumer said earlier Tuesday that Republicans are free to bring up a border security package as an amendment, and if it can get 11 Democratic votes, it can pass. “They have a golden opportunity if they wanted to do border,” Schumer said.

highdesert wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 11:38 am Maybe Biden should invite the leaders of both parties to the WH and negotiate a bill that will pass both chambers.

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the administration of President Joe Biden from destroying razor wire fencing that Texas placed along its border with Mexico to deter illegal border crossings. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a judge was wrong to rule that the U.S. government was immune from a lawsuit by Texas claiming a federal policy of removing the fencing was illegal. The court ordered U.S. immigration authorities not to destroy the fencing while Texas appeals the judge's ruling. The judge had refused to block the destruction of the fencing pending the outcome of the state's lawsuit. The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The concertina wire fencing was installed on private property along the Rio Grande river by the Texas National Guard as part of Operation Lone Star, which was launched by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott in 2021 to deter illegal border crossings. The initiative has spurred a series of court cases, including a lawsuit filed on Tuesday challenging a new Texas law that allows state officials to arrest, prosecute, and deport people who illegally cross the border. The state's lawsuit over the razor wire claims U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents recently stepped up an existing practice of cutting, destroying or otherwise damaging fencing that the state had strategically placed on private land with landowners' permission. The initiative has spurred a series of court cases, including a lawsuit filed on Tuesday challenging a new Texas law that allows state officials to arrest, prosecute, and deport people who illegally cross the border.

The state's lawsuit over the razor wire claims U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents recently stepped up an existing practice of cutting, destroying or otherwise damaging fencing that the state had strategically placed on private land with landowners' permission. Last month, a federal judge criticized the Biden administration for its "utter failure" to prevent unlawful entry into the United States. But she said Texas had not shown that it had legal standing to challenge the federal government's conduct. The 5th Circuit on Tuesday said the judge had misinterpreted a law granting the U.S. government immunity from some legal claims by states, and that Texas was likely to prevail in its lawsuit. "The public interest supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control," Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan wrote for the court.