An "uber-conservative" federal appeals court ruled on Friday against Texas Governor Greg Abbott's floating barrier used to deter Mexican migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Immigration and border security have been a major concern, especially among conservatives, in recent years. Major cities across the United States have dealt with a massive influx of migrants these past few months as Abbott has been sending them from his state to Democratic-led cities like New York City and Los Angeles.
The 1,000-foot barrier was installed on the Rio Grande in July to stop migrants from traveling through the waterway to the Texas border city of Eagle Pass. Nearly 400,000 migrants attempted to enter the U.S. through the section of the southwest border that includes Eagle Pass last fiscal year.
In July, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Texas and Abbott, a Republican who has been cracking down on border security, under the Rivers and Harbors Act, which protects navigable waters. The lawsuit also alleged that the barrier was installed without necessary authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Biden administration on Friday by honoring the lower court's decision made in September to stop any work on the barrier and move it to the riverbank.
"It 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," Judge Dana Douglas wrote in the opinion.
In response to the ruling, Joyce Vance, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and was appointed by former President Barack Obama, wrote on X, formerly Twitter on Friday, "This is a big deal that went largely unnoticed with all of today's news. The uber-conservative 5th Circuit sided with the feds, saying Texas can't place barriers in the Rio Grande, which is a fed'l waterway. Migrants have been seriously hurt trying to cross the spinning barriers."
A spokesperson for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division told Newsweek via email that they had no comment on the appeals court's decision.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via email, and Abbott via phone and email for comment.
Abbott called the appeals court's decision "clearly wrong" and said that he would keep pursuing legal action in an X post on Friday.
"The 5th Cir. Court of Appeals' denial of Texas' sovereign authority to secure the border with floating marine barriers is clearly wrong," he wrote. "AG Paxton & I will seek an immediate rehearing by the entire court. We'll go to SCOTUS if needed to protect Texas from Biden's open borders."
Meanwhile, in the lower court's decision, Judge David Ezra wrote that Texas produced no "credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration."
Earlier this year, Mexican authorities said two bodies were recovered from the Rio Grande, including one stuck in the lines of the floating barriers.
Update 12/6/23, 9:04 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from the Justice Department.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
