Texas Governor Greg Abbott firmly defended his decision to install a floating border wall along the Rio Grande to try to prevent illegal migrants from entering his state.
“I will do what I have to do to defend our state against the invasion of the Mexican drug cartels and others who have tried to enter our country illegally, and I will protect our sovereignty,” the three-time Republican leader of the Lone said. That’s what Star State told the state’s Republican district presidents on Friday.
Abbott installed a nearly 1,000-foot line of large, bright orange buoys that create a canyon in the river that separates the US from Mexico.
Recently, Joe Biden’s Justice Department filed a lawsuit to have the floating border removed, arguing that it is illegal and raises both humanitarian and environmental concerns.
But so far Abbott has refused to remove the barriers.
Migrants who made it to shore walk between the floating border and the barbed wire along the Rio Grande border with Texas. The line of buoys was installed to prevent illegal crossings into Texas, and especially Eagle Pass
The makeshift border was installed near Eagle Pass, a town believed to be a major entry point for illegal border crossings.
The creative solution to an ongoing problem also allows authorities to move the floating border and expand it into “hot spots” where migrants sneak into the US.
“It’s called operation hold the line. They hold the line and make sure no one enters the state of Texas illegally,” Abbott said.
Despite the DOJ’s lawsuit calling the floating border an “illegitimate construction,” the southern governor has no plans to remove it.
“He sued me, and by God, Joe Biden, we’ll see you in court,” Abbott said with conviction.
“I defy the federal government to show they spent so much money in the state of Texas on the border under Joe Biden as president,” he added.
When the lawsuit was filed early last week, Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta said, “We allege that Texas violated federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization.”
She added that Abbott’s move has raised diplomatic objections from Mexico.
In a pre-emptive response to any government protests, Abbott wrote a letter to President Joe Biden that read in part, “If you really care about human life, you should start enforcing federal immigration laws.”
By doing this, you can help me prevent migrants from risking their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River.
You can also help me save Texans, indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking. To end the risk of migrants being penalized for crossing the border illegally, fully enforce the laws of the United States prohibiting illegal immigration between ports of entry.”
A caravan of illegal migrants attempts to wade past a series of buoys being installed to prevent crossings in the Rio Grande River
Part of the series of buoys seen on land. Governor Greg Abbott has called the effort “operation hold the line.”
The floating boundary extends approximately 300 feet and can be moved based on where intersecting ‘hot spots’ are
Migrants from Venezuela – one of them breastfeeding – waded through the Rio Grande past buoys and barbed wire in search of a gateway to the US
A member of the Texas National Guard stands with barbed wire as they reinforce the northern border with steel spikes under the Reforma International Bridge as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
On Friday, the same day Abbott made his fiery remarks, a group gathered outside the governor’s mansion in downtown Austin to protest the new border policy.
Under Operation Lone Star, Texas has sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border and bussed migrants to Democratic-run towns far from the border.
The president’s administration has welcomed more than 500,000 foreign nationals in the past two years under programs designed to reduce the number of illegal immigrants trying to sneak across the border into Mexico.
Customs and border officials say there were fewer than 145,000 encounters with unauthorized migrants along the border with Mexico in June.
That is less than the more than 200,000 per month at the beginning of this year.
But it is believed there are still at least 100,000 migrants waiting at the border hoping to enter the US