The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on July 30 overturned a lower court’s decision that had required Texas to relocate a 1,000-foot floating barrier in the Rio Grande that was installed to prevent illegal border crossings.
The Fifth Circuit found that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas had abused its discretion when it ordered Texas to relocate the buoys from the river last summer.
The July 30 ruling permits the barrier system to temporarily remain in the river until a trial is held.
The Justice Department sued Texas after the buoys were placed in the river in July 2023, alleging that the barrier was unlawful. The district court had previously granted a preliminary injunction directing Texas to move the barrier to the riverbank.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) appealed the ruling unsuccessfully, with a three-judge panel upholding the district court’s decision in a 2–1 opinion. But the full court later heard the case en banc, vacating the panel’s opinion and blocking the injunction pending appeal.
On July 30, Circuit Judge Don R. Willett, joined by eight other judges, found that the district court had abused its discretion in issuing the preliminary injunction.
“We cannot square the district court’s findings and conclusions with over a century’s worth of precedent, which on a fair and faithful reading renders inapplicable or unpersuasive the evidence on which the district court relies.”
The appeals court said that a preliminary injunction should not be granted unless the requesting party meets all four necessary criteria: it is likely to succeed on the merits, it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, the balance of equities is in its favor, and an injunction is alignment with the public interest.
The appeals court said the federal government bears the “heavy burden” of proving a likelihood of success, and the district court “cannot cure the United States’ evidentiary deficiencies by creatively reinterpreting binding caselaw.”
“Because we conclude that the United States fares no better on the three other preliminary-injunction factors, we hold that the district court abused its discretion by granting the United States a preliminary injunction,” the opinion stated.
Abbott, who has said the buoys are a measure to secure the U.S. southern border and prevent illegal immigrants from reaching it, hailed the ruling in a post on social media platform X.
“Biden tried to remove them. I fought to keep them in the water,” he wrote. “That is exactly where they will stay. JUSTICE!!!!”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also welcomed the ruling and pledged to “continue to defend Texas’s right to protect its border from illegal immigration.”
In July 2023, Texas installed a 1,000-foot floating barrier made of interconnected rotating buoys, ranging from four to six feet in height, at a crossing hotspot near Eagle Pass, about 145 miles southwest of San Antonio.
Both the Mexican government and the Biden administration criticized the installation. The Biden administration sued Texas, claiming that the barrier illegally disrupted navigation and was placed without authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The DOJ’s lawsuit accuses Abbott of installing the barrier without the necessary federal authorization, as required by the Rivers and Harbors Act.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta has previously said that the barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and has implications for U.S. foreign policy because of diplomatic protests from Mexico.
The DOJ declined to comment when contacted by The Epoch Times.
