WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Monday sued Texas over floating barriers installed by the state in the Rio Grande River to block migrants crossing from Mexico.
The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, Jaime Esparza, had threatened to take legal action in a letter sent last week to Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Esparza said large plastic buoys installed earlier this month near the city of Eagle Pass illegally obstruct navigation on the river.
“Defendants have built structures in the Rio Grande, a navigable water of the United States, without the Corps’ authorization,” the Justice Department said in the court filing, referring to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Abbott has taken steps in recent years to deter migrants from illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under an initiative dubbed Operation Lone Star, including the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and a campaign to bus migrants to Democrat-led cities further north.
In response to the Justice Department’s legal warning, Abbott sent a letter on Monday to Democratic President Joe Biden, accusing him of failing to enforce immigration laws and causing a “record-breaking level of illegal immigration.”
“Texas will see you in court, Mr. President,” Abbott wrote.
The number of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has dropped since Biden implemented a restrictive new asylum policy in May. Even so, roughly 100,000 were apprehended in June.
(Reporting by Eric Beech and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Tim Ahmann)
