In battle over border barriers, judge calls out Texas' contradictory arguments
A federal judge ruled that Texas had no standing to install the border barriers. Texas was granted a stay. The Justice Department is likely to succeed on its claim that floating barriers Texas deployed in the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from crossing were illegally installed, a federal judge in Austin ruled -- adding the arguments used to justify the buoys are “unconvincing” and, in at least one instance, unconstitutional. Judge David Alan Ezra ordered the Lonestar state to move its buoys on Wednesday and said the Justice Department is likely to prevail on its claim that Texas lacked proper authority to install them in the first place and that the state had employed "unconvincing" and conflicting rationale in doing so. The ruling grants a preliminary injunction to the Department of Justice, which sued Texas for placing the buoys in the Rio Grande in July. "Governor Abbott announced that he was not 'asking for permission' for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immi...