The Biden administration has sued Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for refusing to remove a floating barrier along the Rio Grande that has become a symbol of the state’s efforts to take immigration enforcement into its own hands.
Last week, Texas installed the barrier — made of large buoys and concertina or razor wire strung along the river banks — with the aim of preventing migrants from crossing the river as part of a broader border security initiative called “Operation Lone Star.” Launched by Abbott in 2021, the initiative has deployed over 20,000 military and law enforcement personnel to the border.
Over the last few weeks, Operation Lone Star has faced new criticism following reports that Texas troopers were instructed to push migrant children back into the Rio Grande and to withhold water from migrants as a heat wave with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit grips the Southwest. Those reports are under internal investigation, but Texas Department of Public Safety officials have denied them.
Rather than backing off in the face of the Justice Department lawsuit, Abbott has doubled down on his defense of the border barrier and Operation Lone Star more broadly, signaling the start of a legal fight that he may be willing to take all the way to the US Supreme Court if it comes to it. “Texas will see the Biden Administration in court to aggressively defend our sovereign authority to secure the border,” he tweeted Monday night.
Why is the Department of Justice suing Gov. Greg Abbott?
The Department of Justice’s lawsuit, filed Monday night, aims to remove the buoys and razor wire. It argues that Texas installed the barrier without permission from the federal government, which is charged with administering the nation’s immigration laws, and that states can’t obstruct navigable waterways without congressional authorization — something Texas did not have. Its lawsuit demands that Abbott remove the barrier and any other structures…
Read the full article here