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Appeals Court Says Texas’ Floating Migrant Barrier Can Stay for Now

A federal judge previously ordered the state to remove the barrier in the Rio Grande by Sept. 15.

An appeals court on Thursday temporarily halted a measure forcing Texas to remove a floating barrier in the Rio Grande after the Biden administration sued over their allegedly unlawful installment. The reversal comes just after a federal judge’s Wednesday order to Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration to move the barrier by Sept. 15. Texas had filed a notice of appeal that same day. “Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Abbott’s office said in a statement at the time. The state put up the roughly 1,000-foot barrier earlier this year in an attempt to deter migrants from crossing the Rio Grande. The Justice Department filed a civil suit over the issue in July, calling them “dangerous” and “cruel.” The judge who issued the preliminary injunction on Wednesday added that they were a “threat to human life” and an “impairment to free and safe navigation.”