(Headline USA) Joe Biden‘s activist Justice Department has told Texas that its floating barrier to illegal immigration on the Rio Grande violates federal law.
Joe Biden’s administration told Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that the barrier installed this month near the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, was “unlawful” in a letter dated Thursday and obtained by The Associated Press.
“The floating barrier poses a risk to navigation, as well as public safety,” reads the letter, which also informs the state that the Justice Department intends to sue if the barriers are not removed.
Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The buoys are the latest component of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the state’s 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico from the invasion of illegal immigrants that was noted by many Texas politicians including Ted Cruz.
Other parts of Abbott’s response included razor-wire fencing and arresting illegal immigrants on trespassing charges.
The buoy barrier covers 1,000 feet (305 meters) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.
Eagle Pass is part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second-highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year with about 270,000 encounters.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
