The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott informing him that it intends to take legal action over the floating buoy barrier the state placed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.

The deadline, the DOJ said, was Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. Department of Justice, in a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week, said it intends to take legal action against the state over the buoy barrier it has placed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass

  • Abbott on Monday sent a letter to President Joe Biden again stating that the president's inaction has led Texas to take the step of placing the barrier in the river 

  • The DOJ, in its letter, gave Texas a Monday deadline. The DOJ cited a law that “prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers”

  • Abbott said the buoys are intended as a deterrent and that migrants can access legal ports of entry 

Abbott on Monday sent a letter to President Joe Biden defending the state’s border barrier and placing the onus of border security on the president.

“If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws,” Abbott wrote.“By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River. You can also help me save Texans, and indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking. To end the risk that migrants will be harmed crossing the border illegally, you must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry.

While the buoy barrier and the razor wire placed in the Rio Grande have been the subjects of a great deal of controversy lately, the DOJ, in its letter to Abbott Thursday, cites a law that “prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers.”

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Abbott, in his letter to Biden, said the statue cited by the DOJ “does not describe any action by the State of Texas.”

The Justice Department’s actions are separate from but come following a report culled from an email claiming Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were directed to push migrants back into the Rio Grande and deny them water. That email, from a Texas trooper-medic, also said that razor wire the state has placed in the barrier is severely injuring migrants. Texas leaders have been adamant this week that no such orders were given and that the buoys and wire are there to deter migrants from crossing the river.

Abbott, in his letter to Biden, reiterated that the buoy barrier was intended solely as a deterrent. He said that migrants have the option of accessing legal ports of entry.

“While I share the humanitarian concerns noted in your lawyers’ letter, Mr. President, your finger points in the wrong direction. Neither of us wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River. Yet your open-border policies encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the water, instead of safely and legally at a port of entry. Nobody drowns on a bridge,” Abbott wrote.

This is a developing story.