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Rio Grande buoy barrier near Eagle Pass, Texas
Rio Grande buoy barrier near Eagle Pass, Texas
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Texas' request to overrule a federal district judge, who ordered the state in September to remove the controversial barrier. Judge Dana Douglas, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote in the panel's majority opinion that the district judge had appropriately "considered the threat to navigation and federal government operations on the Rio Grande, as well as the potential threat to human life the floating barrier created."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first deployed the barrier — a roughly 1,000-foot stretch of orange spherical buoys connected by heavy metal cables, complete with an anti-dive net beneath it — in early July and subsequently claimed that it had deterred thousands of people from crossing. The Department of Justice sued the state, arguing that it obstructed U.S. waterways in violation of federal environmental law.
In September, U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, ruled that the buoys likely obstructed the flow of the Rio Grande in a way that required congressional authorization. That reasoning derives from an 1899 law called the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act, which requires federal approval for obstructions built in navigable waters.
Comment: Whilst there are indeed random attacks by unstable people, from both sides, it seems the greater threat emanates from the establishment and its demonstrable involvement in the worst of these attacks: 1 tourist dead after Paris knife attack, assailant was known by authorities for terrorist plans & radical Islam views
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