US judge considers injunction against Texas' migrant-deterrent water barrier

A US federal judge gave attorneys until the close of business on Friday to submit written arguments on whether he should issue an emergency injunction to make Texas Governor Greg Abbott remove a water barrier used to deter migrant crossings while legal challenges proceed.

Judge David Alan Ezra said the key point is whether Abbott has the power to unilaterally try stopping what the governor describes as an "invasion" on the United States' southern border.

Early last month, Abbott deployed about 300 meters of floating barrier made of a line of buoys along the Rio Grande river to deter illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border, at a cost of about $1 million.

Arguing that the floating barrier is a safety hazard that violates international treaties and harms relations with Mexico, the US Department of Justice asked a federal judge to order Texas to remove the barrier late last month.

A significant portion of the buoy barrier was located in Mexican territory, the DOJ said. A survey by the International Boundary and Water Commission found about 240 meters out of the 300 meters was on the Mexican side of the river. Last week, Texas sent a crew out to move the buoys closer to the US side.

At least two bodies of migrants have been found by the water barrier since it was set up.

"The placement of chained buoys by Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty," Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on one of the drownings earlier this month.

"We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants of these state policies."

The increasingly aggressive measures, part of Abbott's border control program Operation Lone Star, have had some pushback from Texas residents.

Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas initially agreed in June to declare Shelby Park in the border town private so that state troopers could arrest migrants for trespassing, The Texas Tribune reported.

Last month, at least 500 migrants were arrested after crossing the river into the park, and residents voiced their anger over this arrangement at city council meetings.

"I am deeply saddened to see Shelby Park become a place of militarization, human rights violations and xenophobic rhetoric instead of a place of recreation and friendship," 19-year-old resident Karina Flores told council members, the Tribune reported.

Unanimous revocation

In response, the council unanimously rescinded the agreement with the state and made the park public property again.

Salinas told The New York Times that he then had declined a recent request from the state to construct a gate on a boat ramp near the river.

"They said: 'Well, we just wanted to ask you. We are going to put it in anyway because we are under an emergency declaration by the governor. That's our authority'," he said.

Magali Urbina and her husband Hugo own a pecan farm by the Rio Grande. Supportive of Abbott's border initiatives, the couple allowed the state to install barbed wire along the riverbank on their property, cutting off their own access to the river.

One afternoon late last month, Urbina spotted a pregnant woman crossing the Rio Grande and pushing her way through the wire, with her arms cut and bloodied.

Urbina told the Tribune that she called nearby Border Patrol agents, who cut through the state's fence to reach the woman. This became too much for her, she said.

The Urbinas asked the state to remove the razor wire from their property, but they were told that Abbott's disaster declaration for the border allows the state to use private property to protect its borders.

Urbina has also seen bodies of drowned migrants floating by their pecan farm by the river.

She said no landowner likes migrants crossing through their property, but she cannot support what the governor is doing.

"There's a humane way to do it," she said. "How many people have lost their lives? And how many will continue to lose their lives?"

Abbott has instructed law enforcement to arrest migrants for trespassing on private property. He is being sued by four Mexican migrants who said they were held in jail for as long as six weeks, after they served their sentences or had their trespassing charges dropped.

Abbott is also busing migrants to Los Angeles, and did so during Hurricane Hilary. A group of 37 migrants were put on a bus on Sunday and arrived in Los Angeles on Monday evening.