Justice Division tells Texas that floating barrier on Rio Grande raises humanitarian considerations
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The Justice Division has instructed Texas {that a} floating barrier of wrecking ball-sized buoys the state placed on the Rio Grande violates federal regulation and raises humanitarian considerations for migrants crossing from Mexico
ByPAUL J. WEBER Related Press
Guardsmen patrol as employees proceed to deploy giant buoys for use as a border barrier alongside the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Cross, Texas, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. The floating barrier is being deployed in an effort to dam migrants from coming into Texas from Mexico. (AP Picture/Eric Homosexual)
The Related Press
AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Division has instructed Texas {that a} floating barrier of wrecking ball-sized buoys the state placed on the Rio Grande violates federal regulation and raises humanitarian considerations for migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.
President Joe Biden’s administration instructed Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that the barrier put in this month close to the border city of Eagle Cross, Texas, was “illegal” in a letter dated Thursday and obtained by The Related Press.
“The floating barrier poses a danger to navigation, in addition to public security, within the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian considerations,” reads the letter, which additionally informs the state that the Justice Division intends to sue if the obstacles aren’t eliminated.
Abbott’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark Friday, however on Twitter, the governor wrote that Texas was performing inside its rights.
“Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border,” Abbott tweeted.
The buoys are the most recent escalation of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar operation to safe the state’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Different measures have included razor-wire fencing and arresting migrants on trespassing fees. The mission generally known as Operation Lone Star got here underneath new scrutiny after a trooper mentioned migrants had been denied water and that orders got to push asylum-seekers again into the Rio Grande.
The Texas Division of Public Security mentioned this week that the trooper’s accounts, which have been made in an e-mail to a supervisor, are underneath inner investigation.
The buoy barrier covers 1,000 toes (305 meters) of the center of the Rio Grande, with anchors within the riverbed.
Eagle Cross is a part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second-highest variety of migrant crossings this fiscal yr with about 270,000 encounters — although that’s decrease than it was presently final yr.
The Biden administration has mentioned unlawful border crossings have declined considerably since new immigration guidelines took impact in Could as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.
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Related Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.
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