Buoys aren't going anywhere at least until October, so they remain an advantage to Abbott

AUSTIN — The appeals court decision to allow the buoys to remain in the Rio Grande at least temporarily as the federal lawsuit against Texas moves forward gives Gov. Greg Abbott the opportunity to maintain the offensive on his signature wheelhouse issue.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has set an Oct. 5 hearing on whether to keep in place the order by Senior U.S. Judge David Allan Ezra that ordered the $1 million, 1,000-foot chain of floating barriers as part of Abbott's Operation Lone Star to be removed pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

And while they remain in place, Abbott is not taking his foot off the gas when it comes to his hard line against unlawful immigration. In recent days, the three-term Republican has posted photos and videos on social media showing sections of a state-paid border wall being erected on the Texas side of the Rio Grande in the same region as where the buoys are floating near Eagle Pass.

"Texas is working night and day to add more border wall," Abbott said on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a clip showing crews working past dark on the project.

He also continues to boast about the number of immigrants who have been cleared to remain in the United States temporarily who have boarded buses for state-paid-for trips to cities outside Texas where Democratic mayors are in charge. On Wednesday, he boasted that 37,400 such migrants since he launched that initiative in April 2022 have been sent to such cities as New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Critics of the busing policy have derided it as a publicity stunt designed to ensure continued appearances on conservative news outlets. Those critics are at least partially right. The video clips on migrant being dropped off in the far-away places have brought Abbott countless hours of airtime and page after page of print coverage.

But the "stunt" part might be off the mark. "Stunt" carries the connotation of being frivolous, and often times the trips have been anything but. In August, a 3-year-old girl from Venezuela died after she boarded bus bound for Los Angeles with her mother at the Texas border. USA TODAY reported the child died from “bacterial Shigella Flexneri Colitis and Aspiration Pneumonia along with diarrhea and vomiting, which caused electrolyte abnormalities and swelling of the brain.”

Texas officials said the child was tested before boarding and showed no sign of illness.

Meanwhile, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who has been something of a foil for Abbott on the immigration issue, has said the 14,000 migrants bused to his city is straining public and private resources to the breaking point.

More: 'I don’t see an ending to this' NYC Mayor Eric Adams calls influx of migrants a national crisis

"This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams told his city earlier this month. "The city we knew, we’re about to lose."

The New York Times reported Friday that New Yorkers are taking their frustration over the influx of immigrants to the streets.

“This is our battle for our neighborhoods, for our children, for our grandparents," Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, was quoted in The Times as saying. "For your equity.”

Abbott, for his part, used Adams' concerns to needle the Democratic mayor, who referred to the Republican Texas governor as "a madman."

Riffing on Frank Sinatra's anthem to the Big Apple, "New York, New York," Abbott told Fox News on Tuesday that Adams "may have made it to be mayor of New York, but he could not last a week in Texas."

The final fate of the buoys will not likely be decided until as late as November as pretrial filings are still being accepted in the Western District of Texas' Austin courthouse. And even while they remain in the water, which is relatively shallow in Eagle Pass, they are likely more a visual opportunity than an actual impediment to fording the Rio Grande.

At 1,000 foot, the buoy chain is roughly three city blocks long, That means someone encountering the buoys at the center line, needs to walk only a block and a half in either direction to avoid them altogether.

But in politics, the visuals often drive the narrative. And as long as Abbott has the ability to control the visuals, he can remain on offense.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Why the Rio Grande buoys continue to be a political asset to Abbott