In case of doubt, the US state of Texas wants to take the dispute over a controversial floating barrier in the US-Mexico border river Rio Grande to the country’s highest court.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office criticized a federal judge’s ruling that Texas should remove the barrier. “Texas will appeal,” it said in a statement on Wednesday evening (local time). The verdict is wrong and will not stand. “Texas is ready to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
A federal judge in the Texas city of Austin issued an interim injunction on Wednesday ordering the barrier to be removed by mid-September. The US government had filed a civil lawsuit against Texas for failing to obtain Washington approval for the barrier. The US government argued in the lawsuit that it also represents a threat to shipping and public safety.
Sharp criticism from the White House
A few weeks ago, Abbott ordered the approximately 300-meter-long barrier made up of numerous buoys, each more than a meter in diameter, to be placed in the Rio Grande. Barbed wire was laid along the shore. According to Abbott, this was intended to prevent migrants from swimming across the river to get to the USA.
The White House had sharply criticized the approach. Activists and Democrats called the action cruel. Mexico’s government, in turn, submitted two diplomatic protest notes – among other things because the barrier violates Mexico’s sovereignty, violates bilateral and international treaties and endangers the personal safety of migrants. A dead person was discovered on the floating buoys in early August.
Abbott’s office now emphasized that Texas will continue to use every strategy to secure the border. The aim is to protect Texas’ sovereignty and protect the state from chaos caused by US President Joe Biden’s “open borders policy”. This fight has just begun.
