Houston Chronicle by Jeremy Wallace 8/10/2023
More than 20 members of Congress want to join a federal lawsuit to help protect Gov. Greg Abbott’s buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, referencing Noah's Ark and questioning if the river can be considered a “navigable waterway” despite being the fourth largest river in North America.
In a motion filed on behalf of U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, and other GOP members, lawyers for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation have asked to be part of the case and targeted how a key law is interpreted in it.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott last month for deploying a 1,000-foot buoy barrier in the Rio Grande without first getting permission from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers as required by the federal Rivers and Harbors Act. Abbott is using the buoys as his latest tool to stop migrants who have been crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass for the last year.
Abbott's attorneys have argued that the floating barrier is not the type of structure that violates the act and that they are in shallow areas that ultimately do not affect the navigability of the river.
The Arrington group is similarly trying to dispel the notion that the 1,900-mile Rio Grande should be defined as a navigable waterway despite being used by thousands of boats every year. They point to a court case from 1870 that suggested that the term navigable waterway is intended to mean moving commerce from one state to another or to a different country and not just one where any small boat occasionally uses the river.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/border-buoys-noahs-ark-18289332.phpI have driven into Mexico across the Rio Grande at an uncontrolled crossing. It was a dirt road in Jeff Davis County that crossed into Mexico using the dry river bottom of the Rio Grande.
