US appeals court lets Texas keep river barrier against illegal border crossings

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - Texas can keep a 1,000-foot (300-meter) long floating barrier in the Rio Grande to deter illegal border crossings by migrants at the river separating the United States and Mexico, a U.S. appeals court has ruled, rejecting a challenge by President Joe Biden's administration.

The full New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a preliminary injunction granted by a lower court that required Texas to move the string of wrecking ball-sized buoys it placed in a shallow area of the river.

The ruling was a victory for Republican Texas officials including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton and a blow to Biden's administration, which is locked in several legal battles with Texas and other Republican-led states over their efforts to crack down on illegal border crossings. The administration has called the state actions an unlawful intrusion on federal authority to set immigration policy.

The 5th Circuit's decision allows Texas to keep the barrier in place pending the outcome of the Biden administration's lawsuit accusing the state of violating a U.S. environmental law.

Abbott criticized Biden for trying to force the removal of the buoys and celebrated the decision in a post on social media.

"I fought to keep them in the water. That is exactly where they will stay," Abbott wrote on Tuesday night. "JUSTICE!!!!"

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas-based U.S. District Judge David Ezra in April refused to dismiss the lawsuit and had directed Texas to move the barrier to the U.S. side of the river pending the outcome of the Biden administration's lawsuit seeking to remove it. A trial in the case is scheduled to start next week.

The lawsuit accused Texas of violating a U.S. environmental law requiring states to receive federal approval before building obstructions in navigable waters. Ferries and some government vessels operate near the shallow, rocky area of the Rio Grande where Texas installed the barrier, according to court filings.

The full 5th Circuit agreed to hear the case after a divided three-judge panel sided with the Biden administration in December. Twelve of the court's 17 active judges are appointees of Republican presidents, but two of the three judges on that panel were appointed by Democrats.

In Wednesday's opinion, the full 5th Circuit said the lower court "clearly erred in finding that the United States will likely prove that the barrier is in a navigable stretch of the Rio Grande."

The floating barrier is part of Abbott's broader effort to deter and punish illegal border crossings, collectively known as Operation Lone Star.

Texas is also involved in legal battles over its placement of razor-wire fencing on private property along the border and a law passed last year authorizing state officials to arrest, prosecute and deport people who cross the border illegally.

The Biden administration has also sued Iowa and Oklahoma for passing similar laws, which it has said interfere with federal enforcement of U.S immigration laws. Judges have blocked all three states' laws pending the outcome of the lawsuits.

Republicans, favoring a hardline approach toward illegal immigration, have criticized Biden's policies as lax and have accused him of allowing a crisis to worsen along the U.S.-Mexican border.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Will Dunham, Alexia Garamfalvi and Chizu Nomiyama)