AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas must remove floating border buoys by Friday, Sept. 15, and cannot install any similar structures in the Rio Grande without receiving proper approval, a federal judge wrote Wednesday in a scathing ruling criticizing Gov. Greg Abbott for ignoring federal laws.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge David Ezra wrote that he expects the Justice Department to prevail in its civil suit against Abbott. The Biden administration argues that Texas violated a federal law that forbids unauthorized construction <\/a>in navigable waterways.<\/p>\n Texas argued the rules didn\u2019t apply because the barrier is in a part of the river too shallow to be navigable<\/a>. The state also said it has the right to self-defense under the U.S. Constitution, in this case to protect itself against a migrant \u201cinvasion.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Ezra disagreed.<\/p>\n Under Texas\u2019s logic, he wrote in the 42-page ruling, a state could declare it has been invaded, then wage war as it sees fit \u201csubject to no oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSuch a claim is breathtaking,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n Texas filed an appeal shortly after the court order came down.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear if that means the state will refuse to comply pending a ruling from the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the nation\u2019s most conservative appellate courts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal,\u201d Abbott said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue to utilize every strategy to secure the border, including deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers and installing strategic barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Justice Department, associate U.S. Attorney General Vanita Gupta said, \u201cWe are pleased that the court ruled that the barrier was unlawful and irreparably harms diplomatic relations, public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who recently led a delegation of lawmakers to Eagle Pass, also embraced the ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cAbbott knows his actions are illegal. I\u2019m glad the court is forcing him to remove his death traps from the Rio Grande. He has endangered lives, damaged Texas\u2019 working relationship with our largest trading partner and let politics rather than sensible policy dictate his actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Texas officials deny the barriers have been responsible for any drownings.<\/p>\n Abbott previously boasted that Texas was not \u201casking for permission\u201d when it installed razor wire along 60 miles of border and the 1,000-foot floating barrier two miles downstream from Eagle Pass.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety <\/a>did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would comply with the court\u2019s order.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Court has found that the United States is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that Defendants have violated\u201d the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, the judge wrote. \u201cThe Court also finds that Texas\u2019s conduct irreparably harms the public safety, navigation, and the operations of federal agency officials in and around the Rio Grande.\u201d<\/p>\n DPS installed the barrier in early July. An aerial survey by the joint U.S.-Mexico agency that controls access to the river found that 80% of the buoys were actually on the Mexican side of the border.<\/a> <\/p>\n DOJ filed suit July 24.<\/p>\n Texas quietly moved the buoys to the American side<\/a>.<\/p>\n At an hours-long hearing last week, Ezra rejected Texas\u2019 assertion that a migrant \u201cinvasion\u201d gives the state broad latitude<\/a> to install anti-migrant defenses without federal permission.<\/p>\n His ruling Wednesday was scathing on this point,<\/p>\n Ezra, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, said the case has to do with whether the buoys impede navigation on the Rio Grande, which the U.S. and Mexico share, and which serves as the international border for the length of Texas.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Texas argued the Justice Department had failed to prove the buoys affect navigability.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even if there were such evidence, Texas has clear constitutional authority to defend its territory against the invasion that Governor Abbott has declared,\u201d the state said in a filing.<\/p>\n The judge scolded Texas for asking the court to \u201cabsolve\u201d its violations of federal law because it disagrees with federal immigration policy.<\/p>\n Abbott has no authority, nor does any governor, the judge said, to declare an invasion has occurred.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral constitutional provisions assign the federal government \u2014 not states \u2014 the authority to recognize and respond to invasions,\u201d the judge wrote, and \u201ccourts of appeals have uniformly declined to consider whether and when an ‘invasion’ occurs because of illegal immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Constitution, such \u201cmatters of foreign policy and defense\u201d are explicitly within the purview of the federal government alone, he wrote.<\/p>\n Abbott has remained defiant ever since the Justice Department filed the lawsuit. On Fox News he said he would appeal to the Supreme Court if necessary. Weeks later, he said he hopes the case gets to the highest court so the justices can formally recognize that states have leeway on immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a federal responsibility under the Constitution. But conservatives say the federal government has failed to secure the borders.<\/p>\n Texas spent $850,000 on the barrier, which the judge described in detail, making clear he didn\u2019t view it as a \u201ctemporary\u201d installation like a string of buoys in a pool: four-foot spheres connected tightly by heavy metal cable, \u201csurrounded by 68 anchors of about 3,000 lb each, and 75 anchors of about 1,000 lb each.\u201d<\/p>\n The buoys have drawn international condemnation, and scorn from congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia B\u00e1rcena sent three formal protests about the buoys starting in late June, and relayed Mexico\u2019s demands directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in meetings early last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mexican officials say the buoys violate treaties it has signed with the United States over how the river is managed.<\/p>\n