Texas can keep Rio Grande floating barriers for now, appeals court rulesBy Victor Nava
Published Sep. 7, 2023
Texas can keep its floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande in place — at least for now, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted District Court Judge David Ezra’s Wednesday order for Texas to remove the thousand-foot-long barrier put in place by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year in an effort to deter 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 appellate rights are effectively lost because the harm is already done to Texas’s sovereign self-defense and public-safety interests,” lawyers for Abbott and the Lone Star State argued in their request for stay.
“The buoys were deployed under the Governor’s constitutional authority to defend Texas from transnational-criminal-cartel invasion,” Texas’ court filing in the fifth circuit continued.
“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.”
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/07/texas-can-keep-rio-grande-floating-barriers-for-now-appeals-court-rules/
