WASHINGTON — Legal experts say the Biden administration appears to have a strong case in its lawsuit against the state of Texas over the buoy barrier placed in the Rio Grande river to stop illegal border crossings. This as the administration suffered a major legal setback in its own efforts to regulate the border.
Razor wiring and buoy barriers were place in the Rio Grande to stop illegal border crossings, but did the state of Texas install them illegally?
The Biden administration and some legal experts argue the state’s actions violate federal laws involving navigable waters.
Gabriel Eckstein, law professor at Texas A&M University, said such navigable waters regulated by federal authorities need to be “free and clear.”
“It seems like a slam dunk, because Texas is in clear violation,” said Eckstein, whose expertise includes water and environmental law.
“They never got authority from Congress. They never got any kind of permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, and therefore they're in violation. They will try to justify it based on border security and immigration issues, but I'm not sure that the courts can take one set of laws and counterbalance them against another set of laws,” Eckstein continued.
After Republican Gov. Greg Abbott refused to remove the barriers, the Justice Department sued the state late Monday. According to the complaint, DOJ declared Texas deprived federal agencies of “the opportunity to evaluate risks the barrier poses to public safety and the environment.”
All of the Texas Democrats in the U.S. House urged the administration to intervene. The calls grew louder after state troopers raised concerns about inhumane treatment of migrants crossing the river.
“Gov. Abbott seems to be trying to win the cruelty Olympics,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin. “We can have real disagreements in politics. That's OK to do. But when we're given power, we're entrusted by the public to do what's right. We should be trying to figure out how to help people and try to figure instead of trying to figure out how to hurt people.”
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are defending Abbott’s hardline border initiative. They said he’s responding to a crisis created by the Biden administration.
“The razor wire and the barriers are not the issue. It's the men, women and children that are being trafficked across the border. We have indentured servanthood in America today, because people are trying to pay back the cartel,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Plano, told Spectrum News.
“The issue is Gov. Abbott is trying to do something about the border, because the president and the current administration won't do anything,” Self continued.
As the buoy battle deepens, a federal judge in California on Tuesday blocked President Joe Biden’s tightened restrictions on who can apply for asylum. The rule allowed immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry or entered without seeking protections in a country they pass through. The consequences dramatically reduced the number of illegal crossings since they took effect two months ago.
Legal experts say the state and federal government need to work together.
“This is clearly a political ploy on Texas’s part,” Eckstein said. “There are concerns that Texas has and they're rightly so. But there are avenues that Texas should be following in coordination with the federal government on these immigration and border issues. Violating a federal law on navigation is just not the right avenue.”
It has been decades since Congress approved sweeping immigration reform. Experts say in absence of a comprehensive overhaul, administrations from both parties will continue to face legal challenges over their border policies as long as large numbers of people head to the border, seeking asylym.