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The US Division of Justice says the barrier in Rio Grande is illegal and will endanger the lives of immigrants.
America Justice Division has informed Texas that its floating barrier of wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande River violates federal regulation and raises humanitarian issues for migrants and asylum seekers crossing into the nation from Mexico.
President Joe Biden’s administration informed Republican Governor Greg Abbott that the barrier — put in this month close to the border city of Eagle Cross, Texas — was “illegal” in a letter dated Thursday and obtained by the Related Press.
“The floating barrier poses a threat to navigation, in addition to public security, within the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian issues,” reads the letter, which additionally informs the state that the Justice Division intends to sue if the boundaries usually are not eliminated.
Abbott’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark Friday, however on Twitter, the governor wrote that Texas was appearing inside its rights.
“Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border,” Abbott tweeted.
The buoys are the newest escalation of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar operation to safe the state’s 1,930km [1,200-mile] border with Mexico.
Different measures have included razor-wire fencing and arresting migrants on trespassing expenses. The mission, generally known as Operation Lone Star, got here underneath new scrutiny after a trooper stated migrants had been denied water and that orders got to push asylum-seekers again into the Rio Grande.
The Texas Division of Public Security stated this week that the trooper’s accounts, which have been made in an electronic mail to a supervisor, are underneath inside investigation.
The buoy barrier covers 305 metres [1,000 feet] of the center of the Rio Grande, with anchors within the riverbed.
Eagle Cross is a part of a border patrol sector that has seen the second-highest variety of migrant crossings this fiscal 12 months with about 270,000 encounters — although that’s decrease than it was right now final 12 months.
The Biden administration has stated unlawful border crossings have declined considerably since new immigration guidelines took impact in Might as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.
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