Texas and Biden administration to face off in court over floating buoy wall at border

Texas will face off against the Biden administration in court on Thursday, appearing before a panel of judges who will decide the legality of the state’s buoy wall used to help secure the southern border.

The case between the state and the president’s administration marks a test for the “invasion” theory, in which conservatives have argued that states have a right to protect themselves from illegal immigrants invading the United States. Biden officials have argued that the buoys violate the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act, a law from 1899.

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“Gov. Abbott has asserted this power here because the U.S. has unconstitutionally refused to protect Texas, and, more importantly, its citizens, against the dangers posed by transnational cartels,” said Lanora C. Pettit, Texas’s principal deputy solicitor general.

Eric Gay/AP

The buoys are designed to spin so that immigrants attempting to go over cannot climb them, and immigrants are also unable to go under them due to the buoys being anchored to the riverbed. Aside from the buoys, the use of razor wires on the Texas shorelines has also raised controversy.

The face-off between the Biden administration and Texas comes after U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 232,972 encounters along the southwest border in August. Justice Department lawyer Michael T. Gray has argued the unprecedented surge of illegal immigrants is not an invasion, which he stated the Constitution defines as “armed hostility from another political entity, such as another state or foreign country that is intending to overthrow the state’s government.

“It is not irregular migration or the alleged underenforcement of laws against illegal, transboundary activity by private, non-state actors,” Gray said. “Such actions are insufficient by themselves to justify allowing states to ‘engage in war’ unilaterally.”

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The security of the southern border has been a frequent subject of criticism of the Biden administration, with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticizing the White House’s response to the southern border during a press conference last month. The candidate stated that immigration “shouldn’t be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk also visited the border last month and left visibly stunned by the “madness” of the situation. The visit was a first for Musk, who is not a politician but has drawn attention to the border crisis and other problems since purchasing Twitter, now rebranded as X, and using his X account to share his personal views.