Texas allowed to keep floating barriers on border river to deter immigrants

HOUSTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that Texas can keep the floating barriers it set up to deter migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border river Rio Grande.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the temporary stay but did not provide further details.

Federal District Judge David A. Ezra on Wednesday ordered that Republican-led Texas must remove the floating barriers by September 15 at its own expense and stop building further obstructions in the river.

"Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation's navigable waters," Ezra wrote in his order.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office immediately appealed Ezra's ruling, saying that the state "is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Texas in late July, alleging that Texas and its governor violated the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act by building a structure in U.S. water without permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The state argued that the barrier isn't a structure that requires authorization and that it notified the International Boundary Water Commission, the binational body that regulates the Rio Grande, before the installation.

The Mexican government has repeatedly condemned the establishment of water barriers in the Rio Grande as a "violation of our sovereignty."