Judge to consider whether Texas can keep oversize buoy barrier on US-Mexico river border

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal decide on Tuesday will think about whether or not Texas can maintain a floating barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border as each the Biden administration and Mexico push to take away Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s newest hardline measure to discourage migrants from crossing.

The scheduled listening to in Austin comes days after Texas, which put in the water barrier on the Rio Grande in July close to the border metropolis of Eagle Move, repositioned the wrecking ball-sized buoys nearer to U.S. soil. Texas is being sued by the Justice Division, which argues the barrier may impression relations with Mexico and pose humanitarian and environmental dangers.

Throughout a visit Monday to Eagle Move, Abbott stated the barrier was moved “out of an abundance of warning” following what he described as allegations that that they had drifted to Mexico’s aspect of the river.

“I do not know whether or not they had been true or not,” Abbott stated.

It’s not clear when U.S. District Choose David Ezra would possibly rule on the barrier.

Within the meantime, Abbott’s sprawling border mission often known as Operation Lone Star continues to face quite a few authorized challenges, together with a brand new one filed Monday by 4 migrant males arrested by Texas troopers after crossing the border.

The lads embody a father and son and are amongst hundreds of migrants who since 2021 have been arrested on trespassing costs within the state. Most have both had their circumstances dismissed or entered responsible pleas in trade for time served. However the plaintiffs remained in a Texas jail for 2 to 6 weeks after they need to have been launched, in accordance with the lawsuit filed by the Texas ACLU and the Texas Truthful Protection Mission.

As an alternative of a sheriff’s workplace permitting the jails to launch the boys, the lawsuit alleges, they had been transported to federal immigration amenities after which despatched to Mexico.

“I feel a key level of all that, which is tough to understand, can also be that as a result of they’re constructing the system as they go, the issues flare up in several methods,” stated David Donatti, an legal professional for the Texas ACLU.

Officers in each Kinney and Val Verde counties, which have partnered with Abbott’s operation, are named within the lawsuit. A consultant for Kinney County stated Monday he didn’t imagine anybody had but reviewed the grievance. A consultant for Kinney County didn’t instantly return an e mail in search of remark.

The lawsuit additionally alleges that there have been a minimum of 80 others who had been detained longer than allowed underneath state legislation from late September 2021 to January 2022.

Abbott was joined on the border Monday by the Republican governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota, all of whom have despatched their very own armed legislation enforcement and Nationwide Guard members to the border.

___ Related Press author Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.