Federal Court Rules Texas Can Keep Its Floating Border Barriers In Place

The Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Texas will be able to continue using its floating barriers in the Rio Grande river in order to deter illegal immigrant crossings.

Last June Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the installment of the floating line of buoys as he signed a series of border security bills, giving the state $5.1 billion in funding as it continues to be at the epicenter of the border crisis.

“What we’re doing right now, we’re securing the border, at the border,” Abbott said at the time. “What these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border.”

By December 2023, a preliminary injunction had been imposed by the Biden administration along with the Department of Justice (DOJ) suing Abbott over the barriers. The New Orleans court, however, has reversed the decision, allowing Texas to once again be able to work along the river.

“We hold that the district court clearly erred in finding that the United States will likely prove that the barrier is in a navigable stretch of the Rio Grande,” Judge Don R. Willett wrote. “We cannot square the district court’s findings and conclusions with over a century’s worth of precedent.”

For nearly a year the barriers have been in a legal battle, and were allowed to continue in January after the full circuit court agreed to review a decision made by a panel of judges, ruling in favor of Biden’s DOJ by 2-1, according to Bloomberg Law. Abbott has maintained that the barriers are a way to prevent migrants from risking their lives in the river, as the state saw record numbers for crossings.

The decision came before the case is set to appear in front of the district court for its planned trial on Aug. 6, Bloomberg Law reported.