Texas border floating barrier can stay for now, court rules

Texas border floating barrier can stay

The floating barrier in the Rio Grande at the Texas border can stay for now, a court ruled on Wednesday.

AUSTIN, Texas - A federal appeals court reversed an order requiring Texas to move a floating barrier at the border.

In December, a divided panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with a federal district judge in Texas who said the buoys must be moved. On Wednesday, the court vacated the panel's 2-1 ruling after a majority of its 17 judges voted to rehear the case.

The state says the buoys at the border are to bring down the number of migrants at a "dangerous and illegal" river crossing rather than a port of entry.

Federal border lawsuit likely to go to SCOTUS

It's an immigration fight that's heading to the Supreme Court. Today, a Dallas constitutional law expert predicted the nation's highest court will eventually have to decide the federal lawsuit the Biden administration filed against the state of Texas.

Immigration attorney Thomas Esparza shared his analysis.

"The Fifth Circuit just wants to make a decision, get all the judges involved. They're a very conservative court. They're going to lean in favor of the Texas governor," he said. "Those buoys are weighed down by 6,000 pound weights and individual sticks that weigh 1,000 pounds. It goes down two feet underground. They're designed to kill."

Esparza says he expects the Rivers and Harbors Act to eventually be upheld by the Supreme Court. He says the Act states there can't be obstruction of the river without permission of the Army Corps of Engineers.

In other border news, many had blamed the state over the weekend for not letting Border Patrol agents access a park to rescue three drowning migrants. However, a Dept. of Justice filing says U.S. agents were notified by Mexican officials an hour after the deaths.

Gov. Gregg Abbott posted on social media saying: "Biden was clearly wrong to blame Texas for deaths in the Rio Grande." He goes on to say, "Biden is to blame for drownings."

"The governor refuses to accept the blame for what his policies do to kill people," Esparza said.

"If you have a valid asylum claim, you can go to one of those ports of entry, as of which we have 29, just in the state of Texas alone. You must make them seek asylum from either the country they are fleeing or from Mexico or some other safe country they go into," Abbott said on Fox News Sunday.

"Having been an immigration lawyer since 1977, I've seen every president struggle with border control, every president," Esparza said. "The solution has always been comprehensive immigration reform."