Greg Abbott Defends Circular-Saw Floating Barriers as Backlash Grows

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has defended the state's controversial saw floating barriers in the face of growing criticism and backlash from Democrats and human-rights advocates.

"Texas to Biden: We will see you at SCOTUS. We filled more than 300 pages in a legal brief explaining -- in detail -- why Texas can use the floating barriers that we have placed in the Rio Grande River," the Republican governor wrote late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Texas has installed a floating barrier containing circular saws between the wrecking ball-size buoys in the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing the border into the southern state.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Abbott over the barrier, saying that it violates federal law and raises humanitarian concerns for migrants crossing into the country from Mexico. On Wednesday night, Abbott opposed the department's motion for the preliminary injunction filed on July 26, a DOJ spokesperson told Newsweek.

"Defendants, Governor Greg Abbott and the State of Texas [...] have built a large floating barrier in the middle of an international boundary river, the Rio Grande, without federal authorization," the preliminary injunction reads. "Irreparable harm to the United States—including to its critically important relations with Mexico—has already occurred and will only heighten if Texas builds more floating barriers in the Rio Grande (as Governor Abbott has suggested Texas may do) or if the current one is allowed to stand for any substantial period of time."

In its 300-page filing responding to the injunction, Abbott and Texas Attorney General's Office said that the buoys don't violate the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA), as the DOJ said. It reads that the "segment of the river where the buoy system has been deployed is not navigable; even if it were, the buoy system does not decrease the navigable capacity of the river; and the buoy system is not a boom or other structure prohibited under the Act."

The DOJ now has until August 16 to file a reply, the department told Newsweek.

Texas Democrats are supporting the DOJ in its opposition to the floating barriers.

"Greg Abbott and his political cronies in the DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] reached a new level of depravity with these buoys, intended to deter asylum-seeking migrants—including children—with the threat of drowning or fatal injury rather than legal repercussions," Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa told Newsweek.

"We're grateful the Biden-Harris Administration has begun taking legal action against Greg Abbott's violent, unconstitutional behavior. As we've said previously, it's time for federal authorities to assert their constitutional duty and shut down Greg Abbott's rogue 'law enforcement,'" Hinojosa added.

Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat, traveled to the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, to "see first hand the cruel & inhumane border initiative," as she wrote on X. She posted a video showing the circular saws between the buoys that make up the floating barrier. Garcia said she was "appalled by the ongoing cruel and inhumane tactics employed by Gov. Abbott at the Texas border."

Human-rights groups in Texas have also condemned the anti-immigration initiative.

"Our organization has assisted asylum seekers for 23 years. Some of them crossed informally at the Border," William O. Holston Jr. J.D., executive director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, told Newsweek.

"Desperate refugees will come to the United States—no amount of cruelty will stop them," Holston Jr. said. "They leave their homes and come here because they have no real choice. And they will increasingly cross at places other than at points of entry as we make it virtually impossible to do that."

He added: "Like much of the world, we are seeing increasing levels of migration. We can either live up to our obligations under international law to provide a functioning system to process them, or we can meet them with non-functioning iPhone apps and intentional cruelty. Make no mistake, people are dying because of these deadly policies."

Mexican authorities have also expressed concerns over the barrier, saying last week that they recovered the bodies of two migrants who died in the river in recent days, one of whom had been caught in the floating barrier.

Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Abbott, previously told Newsweek that Mexican authorities and Democrats "spreading false information that Texas' marine barriers caused any death are flat-out wrong."

Mahaleris said: "These marine barriers help deter illegal river crossings, redirecting migrants to use one of the 29 international bridges on the Texas-Mexico border where they can safely and legally cross. No one drowns on a bridge."

Newsweek has contacted Abbott's team for comment by email on Friday.