Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News
Houston Chronicle
Jeremy Wallace, Texas Political Writer
Judge David Alan Ezra gave attorneys until the close of business on Friday to submit written arguments on whether he should issue an emergency injunction to force Gov. Greg Abbott to take the barrier out of the water while legal challenges proceed.
The U.S. Justice Department has sued Abbott over the 1,000-foot floating barrier that he deployed near Eagle Pass in July to block migrants from crossing the river between ports of entry. Federal officials say Abbott violated the Rivers and Harbors Act, which prevents putting structures in navigable waterways without approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Attorneys for Abbott presented evidence at Tuesday’s hearing that questioned whether the 1,900-mile- Rio Grande can be considered a navigable river or if the floating buoys, attached to more than 100 tons of concrete anchors on the river bed, are the type of structure prohibited by the law. The buoys are each 4 feet in diameter and packed together to prevent people from swimming across the river.
The hearing also unearthed new details on how much diplomatic trouble the buoys have caused with Mexico.
Hillary Quam, a U.S. State Department official, testified that Mexican officials have sent three different letters, made phone calls to top U.S. officials and brought the buoys up at unrelated meetings. Quam, U.S.-Mexico border affairs coordinator for the State Department, said the issue has become a “major concern” for Mexican officials because of its potential to disrupt the flow of water that's needed downstream. Mexican authorities also have warned the buoys potentially violate treaties between the two nations.
When Patrick K. Sweeten, an attorney with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, tried to question Quam about the record surge of border encounters with migrants in the last year, Ezra stopped him and reminded him the hearing wasn’t about immigration, but “whether this is a barrier to navigation” on the Rio Grande.
Abbott on Monday used a news conference in Eagle Pass to make the case once again that Texas has installed the buoy barriers, razor wire and deployed troops to the border because President Joe Biden hasn’t done enough to address illegal border crossings.
Once one of the least crossed sections of the Texas border, Eagle Pass is now one of the most crossed sections.