Justice Department Faces Off With Texas: No, You Can't Drown Immigrants For Their Own Safety
They're already threatening to sue, in what's basically DOJ warp speed.
The US Department of Justice is telling Texas to remove the floating border barriers that it has installed down the middle of the Rio Grande between the US and Mexico, or the DOJ will sue Texas. In a letter sent Thursday, the DOJ informed Texas that Greg Abbott’s Wingnut Line violates US law.
According to a copy of the letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle (gift link), the DOJ wrote,
“This floating barrier poses a risk to navigation, as well as public safety, in the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian concerns. Thus, we intend to seek appropriate legal remedies, which may include seeking injunctive relief requiring the removal of obstructions or other structures in the Rio Grande River,” the letter states.
The letter, sent by Assistant Attorney General Todd Kimm and Jaime Esparza, US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, advises that the buoys violate the Rivers and Harbors Act, which bans obstructing navigable waters in the US. What’s more, the feds note that Texas didn’t ask for authorization from the Army Corps of Engineers, as also required by law. Texas, Wy U Fuckn Up So Bad?
Mexico has already complained that the fuckbuoys violate an international treaty governing the border, and the Justice Department is separately considering whether to launch an investigation of alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers by Texas state troopers taking part in Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Elect Me Because I’m A Bigger Asshole Than DeSantis.”
Abbott ordered the installation of 1000 feet of the floating barrier in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in June; the Chronicle explains that the four-foot diameter buoys “spin when people try to climb them and have a mesh netting underneath to prevent people from swimming underneath.” The buoys do not (yet) have razor wire attached to them, but a Texas trooper alleged in an email that elsewhere in the river, the state installed barrels wrapped in razor wire that could trap people underwater during high water.
Abbott also ordered miles of razor wire to be placed on the banks of the Rio Grande, which has led to complaints from the US Border Patrol because it has interfered with attempts to rescue migrants in distress.
Friday afternoon, Abbott sent a string of tweets (now “Xes,” we guess) to say that Texas can do what it wants at the border because it has “the sovereign authority to defend our border,” never mind that courts have found again and again that border enforcement is the federal government’s job. Most recently, the Supreme Court reiterated in an eight to one decision in June that immigration law is not up to states, no matter how much a Texas governor wants to win the Republican presidential nomination.
Abbott’s Twitter thread said a bunch of other dumb wrong stuff, blaming Joe Biden for a nonexistent “open borders” policy and vowing to “continue to deploy every strategy to protect Texans and Americans — and the migrants risking their lives,” apparently through the strategy of drowning enough migrants that they’ll stay home. Pretty good protection, eventually.
Abbott closed with a very manly “We will see you in court, Mr. President,” which caused some MAGA people who pay for Twitter (yes, now “X”) to dampen their underpants in joy.
Well fine then. Bring on the DOJ lawsuit, and eventually Abbott will be ordered to remove the hazard to navigation and truck it back to where it came from. Then everyone can blast “The Buoys are Back in Town” on their stereos.
[Houston Chronicle (gift link)]
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Seeking political asylum in the United States is NOT illegal.
Attempting to murder in cold blood already desperate migrants seeking a better life is a CRIME.
Ahh yes. I remember what Jesus said in the Bible. “Let he who has a flag pin on his lapel drown the first asylum seeker.”