The Biden administration is suing Texas over the “floating wall” to stop immigration

The Department of Justice sued the state of Texas on Monday for Floating wall installation In the Rio Grande, designed to prevent migrants from crossing the border separating Mexico from the United States. And so the Joe Biden administration continues to attack Gov. Greg Abbott, who ordered the installation of the barrier, made up of huge orange floats, last June.

It is an obstacle about 350 meters long, that the federal government is criticizing it for its “humanitarian implications”. Abbott did not have permission from either country to install it in the section separating Eagle Pass, in Texas, and, on the other side, Piedras Negras, in Coahuila.

This is the latest provocation from the governor who is facing Washington over border management. As part of a plan it launched two years ago dubbed Operation Lone Star (Texas’ nickname), it has placed barbed wire at some points on the dividing line, rounded up immigrants and charged them with trespassing, and sent them on publicly paid buses to Democratic-majority cities like Chicago, New York or Washington. Some of those who made it to the capital are heading home Vice President Kamala Harriswho wanted to bring the crisis in the south of his state, which shares 2,000 kilometers with Mexico, through 28 bridges and international border crossings at its gates.

The complaint did not come as a surprise to the governor, who sent a letter to President Biden on Monday accusing him of not stemming the flow of immigration and defending his right to take actions the federal government is not taking to attack the crisis. In his letter, Abbott writes: “Texas is waiting for you in court, Mr. President.”

Ministry of Justice He gave him until the same day to rectify it, because the assistant attorney general, Vanita Gupta, told him in writing, that the floats posed “a security risk to navigation on the Rio Grande, in addition to their humanitarian ramifications.” Gupta also claimed that the gesture prompted “diplomatic protests from Mexico” and could “harm US foreign policy”.

White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre accused Abbott of acting in bad faith in this matter. “The only person who sows chaos is the governor,” he added in his daily conference, to reporters’ questions. “This is what he continues to do: inhumane political representation.”

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Jean-Pierre bragged about it The border recorded the lowest number of illegal crossings In the past two years, after the lifting of Title 42 in May, a rule imposed by the Donald Trump administration under the pretext of stopping the spread of the pandemic. It allowed the rapid expulsion of immigrants who were sent back to Mexico within minutes. Now Title 8 alone rules, which in practice means hardening Conditions for applying for asylum. It allowed Barack Obama’s administration to deport more than three million immigrants in eight years.

This isn’t the first time that Abbott, who is serving his third term as governor, and the Biden administration have faced each other in court. Attorney General Merrick Garland accused the state in 2021 of overreaching its powers by allowing Texas police officers to stop vehicles carrying immigrants on the grounds that they may be contributing to the spread of the coronavirus.

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