The state must remove floating border buoys by September 15, a federal judge said in a ruling criticizing Governor Greg Abbott for ignoring federal law.
Texas officials were ordered to remove the floating border wall from the Rio Grande by September 15, dealing a blow to Governor Greg Abbott, who quickly vowed to “take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The state also cannot install any similar structures in the Rio Grande without prior approval, U.S. District Judge David Ezra wrote in his ruling on Wednesday.
The wrecking ball-sized buoys were installed in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas, in July. The barriers have created an avalanche of online scrutiny, with critics calling the roughly 1,000-foot floating barrier inhumane.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the federal lawsuit at the end of July, accusing the Abbott administration of violating federal law by building the structure. Texas officials have defended the floating wall, saying it’s an attempt to secure the U.S.-Mexico border against migrants and that the part of the river in question was too shallow for the law to apply.
