Feds sue Texas after Abbott refuses to remove floating barrier, razor wire on Rio Grande

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday made good on its threat to take legal action against Texas over Gov. Greg Abbott's aggressive border security actions along the Rio Grande and filed a civil complaint accusing the state of skirting federal law.

“We allege that Texas has flouted federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a news release. “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.”

The federal suit, foreshadowed in a letter last week to Abbott, came hours after the governor sent President Joe Biden a letter saying Texas' efforts at the border, which include a buildup of National Guard soldiers and state troopers as well as laying miles of coiled razor wire along the Rio Grande's banks, will continue despite the Justice Department's warning.

"You must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry," the Republican governor told the Democratic president. "In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”

The Justice Department's news release asserts that the federal Rivers and Harbors Act prohibits "the placement of any unauthorized barriers or obstructions in the Rio Grande and other navigable waters of the United States."

The department also said it will "seek the appropriate legal remedies" to remove the barriers from the river.

The federal and state dispute comes amid growing criticism from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats nationwide over Abbott's decision to lay razor wire up and down the Rio Grande and a floating barrier of string buoys at a high-traffic section of the river in Eagle Pass.

Last week, congressional Democrats from Texas called on Biden to step in to counter Abbott's border maneuvers, which are part of his $9 billion immigration enforcement initiative, Operation Lone Star. Later in the week, dozens of other Democrats joined the Texans in a formal letter to the president.

More: How the buoys and other parts of Operation Lone Star affect life in Eagle Pass

At a news briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to discuss the legalities involved in the Austin-Washington dispute. But she pushed back with force against Abbott's assertion that Biden is doing nothing to control unlawful immigration.

"Gov. Abbott is not, he's not moving forward in good faith. He's just not," Jean-Pierre told reporters. "And the only person, the one person, that is sowing chaos is Gov. Abbott."

She cited an U.S. Department of Homeland Security report from early June that found unlawful immigration plummeted in the weeks after the federal government in May lifted a COVID-era public health order commonly called Title 42. Abbott and others had warned that ending the policy that allowed border authorities to quickly turn back asylum-seekers to Mexico would further open the floodgates of unlawful immigration.

"What you see the governor doing is dangerous and unlawful," Jean-Pierre said. "It's actually hurting the process … of what we're trying to do."

Asked directly why federal authorities don't simply remove the floating barriers from the Rio Grande and the razor wire on federally owned riverside properties, Jean-Pierre declined to say.

Photo gallery: A family's journey to enter Texas: Migrants continue crossing the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass

The Justice Department said its complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas, will be litigated by the Environmental Defense Section of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“The Rio Grande is a significant stretch of the southern border of our country,” Jaime Esparza, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement. “We must all recognize that there are laws and policies in place — both domestic and international — to ensure the safety and security of everyone working, living and traveling along the river.

"These laws cannot be ignored, and my office will take and support the appropriate legal action to uphold them.”

Critics of Abbott's tactics have also decried numerous reports that migrants are being severely injured as they attempt to circumvent the razor wire as well as the four recent drowning deaths in the Rio Grande by migrants, including a woman and an infant, trying to cross into Texas.

More: 'They're going to find a way': Migrants navigate buoys, razor wire to enter Texas

In his letter, Abbott suggested the blame lies at the president's feet.

"While I share the humanitarian concerns noted in your lawyers’ letter, Mr. President, your finger points in the wrong direction," Abbott wrote. "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."

After the Justice Department filed its suit Monday, Abbott told Fox News that if the state loses Round One, he's prepared to continue the legal battle "all the way to the United States Supreme Court."

"It tells you all you need to know about the Biden administration that the only lawsuit that I'm aware of they have brought against anybody concerning the border is against a state that's trying to impede illegal immigration, rather than using any laws that are on the books already to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border," he told the cable outlet.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Texas Gov. Abbott tells Biden floating barriers to stay on Rio Grande