A US appeals court has granted a temporary stay allowing Texas to keep in place floating buoys installed in the middle of the Rio Grande to block migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border, as court proceedings move forward, a court filing showed.
A federal judge had ordered Texas on Wednesday to move the controversial line of floating buoys in what was seen as a tentative win for Joe Biden, after the US president’s administration sued the state.
Although Wednesday’s order was not meant to take effect until 15 September, the ruling made late on Thursday could protect the rightwing Texas government from having to take immediate steps to start moving the barriers to the embankment on the US side of the river that forms part of the border with Mexico.
The floating barrier is one of multiple strategies the state governor, Greg Abbott, has launched to deter migrants, including coils of razor wire placed along the riverbank and huge spending by Texas and other states on patrols, even though policing the international border is the responsibility of the federal government.
Abbott’s border operations came under increased scrutiny in July after an internal trooper email surfaced alleging that Texas authorities had been ordered to push migrant children back into the river and deny water to migrants in extreme heat.
The line of buoys is about 1,000ft long and is fitted with spikes and netting, too. Although it may be easier to skirt around than the miles of razor wire is to cross, it has stirred the most controversy with its aggressive symbolism and has attracted fierce criticism from immigration and human rights advocates as well as environmentalists.
The river bank on the Mexican side is lush while the bank on the US side, at Eagle Pass, Texas, where the buoys were installed in July, has been bulldozed to make way for troops and vehicles guarding US soil.
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Reuters contributed reporting