Texas Governor Greg Abbott knows that his vow to take his fight for a U.S.-Mexico floating buoy border “all the way” to the Supreme Court is doomed to failure, according to former prosecutor Joyce Vance.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the Republican governor on Monday, having already issued an ultimatum for the controversial buoys in the Rio Grande to be removed last week. The DOJ has accused Texas of violating federal law, while citing humanitarian and diplomatic concerns.
Abbott responded to the lawsuit with defiance during a Fox News interview a short time later, vowing to take on the Biden administration in court and arguing that “Texas is defending its sovereignty and its constitutional right to secure the border, our state and our country.”
Vance, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, accused Abbott of engaging in a “pathetic” political stunt in a Substack post, pointing out that the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 unambiguously prohibits the “creation of any obstruction” in waterways without authorization by Congress and approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Brandon Bell
“The language of the statute makes clear that Texas’s position is a complete loser here,” Vance wrote. “And the Governor knows that. He knows that when this matter works its way up to the Supreme Court he’ll lose. Winning in court was never his goal.”
“This is just another pathetic exercise in scoring political points at the expense of vulnerable people,” she continued. “It’s a flagrant violation of the law.”
Vance went on to say that President Joe Biden‘s administration was “right” to file suit and had taken a “simple and elegant legal path” to scoring a victory in court over Abbott, although “the underlying issues involving immigration will linger.”
“The lawsuit will proceed in the Western District of Texas,” she wrote. “In the meantime, more human beings, fleeing gang violence and other intolerable conditions, often accompanying young children, will be greeted at the U.S. border by a barricade of razor wire.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to Abbott’s office via email on Monday.
Abbott announced his plan to deploy the 1,000-foot inflatable border in Eagle Pass, Texas, last month, arguing that his state “has had to take unprecedented steps and [respond] to the crisis caused by the [Biden] administration on the border.”
While Abbott’s buoy border only covers 1,000 feet, the Rio Grande is the fourth-longest river in North America. It is roughly 1,900 miles long, including over 1,200 miles that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border.
In addition to the floating barrier, Abbott’s controversial multibillion dollar effort to secure the border—made possible through disaster declarations—also includes the installation of razor wire structures near Eagle Pass.
