Judge to hear arguments over Texas buoy barrier on Rio Grande – JP

Abbott, a frequent court opponent of the Biden administration over its immigration policies, launched the operation in March 2021 in response to record-high migration levels. Abbott’s office has described it as an effort to “fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border.”

Operation Lone Star already has grabbed national headlines for bussing migrants to Democratic-run cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C., which critics slammed as a political stunt to protest the administration’s migration policies.

And in a further effort to deter migration, state authorities announced in June they would begin constructing a floating barrier, made of buoys strung together, to block migrants from crossing the Rio Grande into Texas.

Speaking on Fox News last month, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Christopher Olivarez described the marine barrier as “another added layer of defense to what we have in place already with razor wire, boots on the ground, and boats in the water.”

A group of Democratic members of Congress from Texas slammed the buoy system in a recent letter to administration officials as “yet another dangerous stunt that prioritizes political posturing over the safety and well-being of both Texans and migrants.”