Placing a floating barrier within the Rio Grande to cease migrants is new. The thought is not.

AUSTIN, Texas — Within the closing months of the Trump administration, a brand new plan to seal off america’ southern border began gaining steam: a floating water barrier to discourage migrants from attempting to cross from Mexico.

The thought by no means materialized. However three years later, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has put it into motion.

The state put in a floating barrier of brilliant orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande this month, stretching roughly the size of three soccer fields.

It’s an untested technique of deterring migrants alongside the U.S. border that’s already fortified in huge sections by excessive metal fencing and razor wire. The rollout of the buoys on the Rio Grande has thrust Texas into a brand new standoff with the Biden administration over immigration on the state’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico.

The Justice Division has requested a federal court docket to order Texas to take away the buoys, saying the water barrier poses humanitarian and environmental considerations alongside the worldwide boundary. Abbott has waved off the lawsuit as he’s cheered on by conservative allies who’re looking forward to circumstances that will empower states to tackle extra aggressive immigration measures.

That authorized battle comes as President Joe Biden’s administration defends a brand new asylum rule in court docket. A federal choose Tuesday blocked the coverage that the administration sees as a manner of controlling the southern border whereas sustaining avenues for migrants to pursue legitimate asylum claims. The choose’s order will not take impact for at the very least two weeks.

This is what to know in regards to the river barrier:

‘The Water Wall’

Like different items of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border mission referred to as Operation Lone Star, the buoys decide up the place former President Donald Trump left off.

In 2020, Mark Morgan was the performing commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Safety. He informed The Related Press on Tuesday that he authorised plans to deploy the identical water barrier on the Rio Grande that Texas is now utilizing.

That August, the Military Corps of Engineers posted a solicitation for a “buoy barrier system” that will “mitigate the power of swimmers to climb” over or below it.

Morgan known as it the “water wall.”

“It was actually designed to be a stopgap to make the most of in high-flow areas the place we didn’t have a bodily construction in place,” Morgan mentioned.

Spokespersons for CBP didn’t instantly deal with questions Tuesday in regards to the 2020 plans. The federal Worldwide Boundary and Water Fee, whose jurisdiction contains boundary demarcation and overseeing U.S.-Mexico treaties, mentioned it didn’t get a heads-up from Texas in regards to the state’s floating barrier.

Specialists have raised considerations of the buoys altering the river’s stream or of objects getting caught in them. Morgan, who’s now a visiting fellow with the conservative Heritage Basis, mentioned environmental evaluations below Trump raised points with the barrier however mentioned he couldn’t recall specifics.

“Similar to the bodily wall itself, proper, there are a selection of issues you are able to do to accommodate that,” he mentioned.

‘Flouted Federal Regulation’

It’s unclear how shortly a federal choose in Texas will rule on the Biden administration’s lawsuit.

Till then, roughly 1,000-foot (305-meter) of barrier will stay on a potion of the Rio Grande that separates Eagle Move, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico. The Mexican authorities has additionally raised considerations in regards to the barrier, saying it might violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.

The Biden administration’s lawsuit accuses Texas of violating the federal Rivers and Harbor Act. Vanita Gupta, affiliate legal professional normal, mentioned Texas “flouted federal regulation” and dangers damaging U.S. international coverage.

The buoys are the most recent escalation in Texas’ border mission that additionally contains Nationwide Guard patrols, jails that home migrants arrested on trespassing fees and busloads of asylum-seekers despatched to Democratic-led cities throughout the U.S.

‘See You in Courtroom, Mr. President’

Abbott has tried to place America’s largest crimson state because the foremost antagonist to the Biden administration’s border insurance policies. Final yr, Abbott simply received a 3rd time period in a marketing campaign that centered on border insurance policies.

In a letter to Biden this week, Abbott mentioned the state was performing inside its rights to protects its borders

“Texas will see you in court docket, Mr. President,” he wrote.

He mentioned it was the Biden administration that was placing placing migrants in danger by not doing extra to dissuade them from making the journey to the U.S.