DOJ warns Texas against using buoys in Rio Grande to stop migrants

The Justice Division on Friday warned Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott that his administration’s use of ballards — or buoys — within the Rio Grande to cease migrants might convey authorized motion.

“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal regulation, elevate humanitarian issues, current severe dangers to public security and the surroundings, and will intervene with the federal authorities’s potential to hold out its official duties,” the letter obtained by ABC Information says.

Earlier this week, Abbott had ballards put in within the river in an effort to discourage migrants from crossing.

“Texas’s unauthorized building of the floating barrier is a prima facie violation of the Rivers and Harbors Act. This floating barrier poses a danger to navigation, in addition to public security, within the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian issues,” the letter says. “Thus, we intend to hunt acceptable authorized treatments, which can embrace looking for injunctive reduction requiring the elimination of obstructions or different constructions within the Rio Grande River.”

Abbott responded, “Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, below the U.S. Structure and the Texas Structure. We’ve despatched the Biden Administration quite a few letters detailing our authority, together with the one I hand-delivered to President Biden earlier this yr.”