#Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered to remove buoys from Rio Grande | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reasoningdaily · 8 months

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Gov. Greg Abbott will have to remove the floating buoy barrier he deployed in the Rio Grande without federal permission by the end of next week, a judge ruled Wednesday.

It’s a victory for the U.S. Justice Department, which has contended that Abbott violated federal law by deploying the barriers near Eagle Pass without first getting clearance from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Army Corps has oversight of all navigable waterways in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Texas scrambles to reposition buoy barrier in Rio Grande before court hearing

Abbott said he would appeal the ruling. "Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,” the Republican governor posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Just minutes after posting that message, his attorneys officially filed their appeal.

Abbott’s attorneys had argued that the barriers were not the type of structure that needed review by the Army Corps. In addition, they claimed that the Rio Grande, despite being one of the largest rivers in America, doesn't count as a navigable waterway because it doesn't include commercial shipping.

Judge David A. Ezra wasn’t moved by either argument, granting the Justice Department’s request that Abbott remove the barriers by Sept. 15.

Ezra said Congress determined long ago that the Rio Grande was navigable and no other body can change that designation.

"Once a water is found to be navigable by Congress, it remains so until Congress, not the courts, declares otherwise," Ezra wrote.

In addition, Ezra disputed the state's claim that the buoys were not subject to the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, saying the "floating barrier interferes with or diminishes the navigable capacity."

READ MORE: Republicans invoke Noah’s Ark in court to defend Greg Abbott’s border buoys

Abbott has featured the buoys as his latest phase of Operation Lone Star, the border security program that has also sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border, shipped migrants to other states, and deployed miles of razor wire along the Rio Grande to deter border crossings.

Abbott said he’s taking action along the border because of the federal government's inability to stop migrant crossings into Texas. Over the last two years, border patrol has encountered more than 4 million people along the entire southern border with Mexico. That is double the number of encounters from the previous two years.

Abbott has used those numbers to justify his border patrol program, which is costing taxpayers nearly $5 billion annually.

“I will do whatever I have to do to defend our state from the invasion of the Mexican drug cartels and others who are trying to come into our country illegally,” Abbott said last month in a speech to Republican officials. “I will protect our sovereignty.”

While there has been a surge along the border over the last two years, federal data shows the numbers have generally been improving over the last several months. Combined June and July showed the lowest number of border encounters since 2020, when Donald Trump was still president.

#Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered to remove buoys from Rio Grande #floating barrier wall #texas #abbott #fuck greg abbott #white supremacy #white lies #mx #mexico #human rights watch #immigration #us fuckery #usdoj

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande.

According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father.

The email, which the trooper sent to a superior, suggests that Texas has set “traps” of razor wire-wrapped barrels in parts of the river with high water and low visibility. And it says the wire has increased the risk of drownings by forcing migrants into deeper stretches of the river.

The trooper called for a series of rigorous policy changes to improve safety for migrants, including removing the barrels and revoking the directive on withholding water.

“Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote, later adding: “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”

Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine did not comment on all the contents of the trooper’s email, but said there is no policy against giving water to migrants.

Considine also provided an email from DPS Director Steven McCraw on Saturday calling for an audit to determine if more can be done to minimize the risk to migrants. McCraw wrote troopers should warn migrants not to cross the wire, redirect them to ports of entry and to closely watch for anyone who needs medical attention.

In another email, McCraw acknowledged that there has been an increase in injuries from the wire, including seven incidents reported by Border Patrol where migrants needed “elevated medical attention” from July 4 to July 13. Those were in addition to the incidents detailed by the trooper.

“The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants,” McCraw wrote. “The smugglers care not if the migrants are injured, but we do, and we must take all necessary measures to mitigate the risk to them including injuries from trying to cross over the concertina wire, drownings and dehydration.”

The incidents detailed in the email come as Abbott has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to physically bar migrants from entering the country through his Operation Lone Star initiative, escalating tensions between state and federal officials and drawing increased scrutiny from humanitarian groups who say the state is endangering asylum seekers. The most aggressive initiatives have been targeted at Eagle Pass.

The state has also now deployed a wall of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, which triggered complaints over the weekend from Mexico.

Federal Border Patrol officials have issued internal warnings that the razor wire is preventing their agents from reaching at-risk migrants and increasing the risk of drownings in the Rio Grande, Hearst Newspapers reported last week.

The DPS trooper expressed similar concerns, writing that the placement of the wire along the river “forces people to cross in other areas that are deeper and not as safe for people carrying kids and bags.”

The trooper’s email sheds new light on a series of previously reported drownings in the river during a one-week stretch earlier this month, including a mother and at least one of her two children, who federal Border Patrol agents spotted struggling to cross the Rio Grande on July 1.

According to the email, a DPS boat found the mother and one of the children, who went under the water for a minute.

They were pulled from the river and given medical care before being transferred to EMS, but were later declared deceased at the hospital. The second child was never found, the email said.

The Governor has said he is taking necessary steps to secure the border and accused federal officials of refusing to do so.

“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally," said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. "President Biden has unleashed a chaos on the border that’s unsustainable, and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis.”

The DPS trooper’s email details four incidents in just one day in which migrants were caught in the wire or injured trying to get around it.

On June 30, troopers found a group of people along the wire, including a 4-year-old girl who tried to cross the wire and was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them,” the email says. The DPS trooper wrote that the temperature was “well over 100 degrees” and the girl passed out from exhaustion.

“We provided treatment to the unresponsive patient and transferred care to EMS,” the trooper wrote. A spokesperson for the Texas National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.

In another instance, troopers found a 19-year-old woman “in obvious pain” stuck in the wire. She was cut free and given a medical assessment, which determined she was pregnant and having a miscarriage. She was then transferred to EMS. The trooper also treated a man with a “significant laceration” in his left leg, who said he had cut it while trying to free his child who was “stuck on a trap in the water,” describing a barrel with razor wire “all over it.” And the trooper treated a 15-year-old boy who broke his right leg walking in the river because the razor wire was “laid out in a manner that it forced him into the river where it is unsafe to travel.”

In another instance, on June 25, troopers came across a group of 120 people camped out along a fence set up along the river. The group included several small children and babies who were nursing, the trooper wrote. The entire group was exhausted, hungry and tired, the trooper wrote. The shift officer in command ordered the troopers to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico,” the email says.

The trooper wrote that the troopers decided it was not the right thing to do “with the very real potential of exhausted people drowning.” They called command again and expressed their concerns and were given the order to “tell them to go to Mexico and get into our vehicle and leave,” the trooper wrote. After they left, other troopers worked with Border Patrol to provide care to the migrants, the email said.

The trooper did not respond to a request for comment Monday. His email was shared by a confidential source with knowledge of border operations. It was unclear whether the trooper received a response from the sergeant he’d messaged.

Considine acknowledged that DPS was aware of the email and provided the additional agency emails in response. Those emails detail seven other incidents reported by federal border agents in which migrants were injured on the wires, including a child who was taken to the hospital on Thursday with cuts on his left arm, a mother and child who were taken to the hospital on Wednesday with “minor lacerations” on their “lower extremities,” and another migrant taken to San Antonio on July 4 to receive treatment for “several lacerations” that required staples.

Victor Escalon, a DPS director who oversees South Texas, wrote in an email Friday to other agency officials that troopers “may need to open the wire to aid individuals in medical distress, maintain the peace, and/or to make an arrest for criminal trespass, criminal mischief, acts of violence, or other State crimes.”

“Our DPS medical unit is assigned to this operation to address medical concerns for everyone involved,” Escalon wrote. “As we enforce State law, we may need to aid those in medical distress and provide water as necessary.”

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soberscientistlife · 5 months

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A federal appeals court on Friday ordered Texas to remove a floating barrier from the Rio Grande placed there under the direction of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to deter illegal migrant crossings.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court's finding that the buoys were illegal.

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maswartz · 8 months

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antonio-velardo · 5 months

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Antonio Velardo shares: U.S. Appeals Court Orders Texas to Remove Buoy Barrier in Rio Grande by Edgar Sandoval

By Edgar Sandoval Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has said the floating buoys are needed to restrict migrants entering from Mexico. The federal government said they were illegal. Published: December 1, 2023 at 05:22PM from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/yEd8Y4J via IFTTT

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#antonio velardo #IFTTT #NYT

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mongowheelie · 8 months

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Judge demands Texas Gov. Abbott remove potentially deadly immigrant barriers from Rio Grande - Raw Story

Potentially? They have already killed people!

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fenrislorsrai · 9 months

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The trooper called for a series of rigorous policy changes to improve safety for migrants, including removing the barrels and revoking the directive on withholding water.

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RELEVANT: The right to seek asylum is a basic human right. The US has signed treaties saying that we agree this is a basic human right and we agree, people can seek asylum in the US. That is takes too long to determine if they qualify for asylum is the actual problem, not that people are seeking out access to a basic right.

#texas #asylum seekers #drowning #child death #miscarriage

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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The Department of Justice on Monday sued the state of Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott over the installation of a barrier of buoys in the Rio Grande River intended to keep migrants from crossing into the U.S.

The DOJ based its lawsuit on allegations that in building the buoy barrier, Texas violated the Rivers and Harbors Act by obstructing navigable waters of the U.S.

Texas officials began constructing the barrier near the Camino Real International Bridge in Eagle Pass earlier this month, finishing last week, according to the DOJ lawsuit.

Federal officials are asking a Judge to order that Texas remove the existing buoys at their own expense and also that they be enjoined from constructing any further barriers in other waters near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Abbott and the state of Texas allegedly did not seek authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to installing the buoys, as required under law, and that because of that, "the Corps and other relevant federal agencies were deprived of the opportunity to evaluate risks the barrier poses to public safety and the environment, mitigate those risks as necessary through the permitting process, and otherwise evaluate whether the project is in the public interest," the DOJ lawsuit alleges.

The buoys are part of Operation Lone Star, Abbott's major border policy.

"This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns. Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement on Monday.

A Judge from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas had not yet been assigned to the case as of Monday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear how soon until Texas has to answer the allegations in court. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a letter on Friday, the DOJ had warned the Governor that Texas' "actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government's ability to carry out its official duties."

On Monday, Abbott responded with a letter to President Joe Biden remaining defiant -- and indicating his state's defense will hinge on what he describes as Texas' "sovereign authority" to protect its borders.

"Texas will see you in court, Mr. President," Abbott wrote, hours before the DOJ announced its suit.

Abbott, a Republican, has long assailed what he calls the failure of the Biden administration's border and immigration policies. He's also been busing migrants out of Texas to Democratic-led states and cities -- a move that has stoked outcry from advocates.

On Friday, the Governor said in a statement that his administration, along with Texas' Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard, are "continuing to work together to secure the border; stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas; and prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal behavior between ports of entry," citing statistics on hundreds of thousands of apprehensions and criminal arrests made under Operation Lone Star.

Responding to the DOJ lawsuit on Monday, White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan, said, in part: "Governor Abbott's dangerous and unlawful actions are undermining that effective plan, making it hard for the men and women of Border Patrol to do their jobs of securing the border, and putting migrants and border agents in danger."

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