BUOY LAWSUIT UPDATES
Texas continues to waste taxpayer dollars on lawsuits to keep buoy barriers on the Rio Grande that have already caused grave injury and death to various people, including children. Texas wants to enforce immigration law on their own terms while they themselves do not follow the requirements of federal laws. As it was made clear this week, on September 6th, District Court Judge Ezra granted the Biden Administration’s preliminary injunction. Judge Ezra ordered that Texas remove the buoys to the U.S. side of the river bank no later than September 15, 2023. Notably, in his conclusion Judge Ezra states:
Governor Abbott’s office stated that it was “prepared to fight the case up to the Supreme Court if necessary” and immediately filed an appeal of Judge Ezra’s order to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On September 7, 2023, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Texas’ appeal and allowed the buoys to stay pending the final case outcome. Texas’ immediate appeal proves they are not concerned with real immigration solutions, and instead continue exacerbating dangerous, anti-immigrant, fear-mongering political discourse, and actions.
CHNV PAROLE PROGRAM LAWSUIT
Texas and 21 other states have an ongoing lawsuit for the CHNV Parole program. On January 5, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced a parole program for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. lawfully without having to “make the dangerous journey to the border.” This parole program would be granted for those nationals on a case-by-case basis if they met strict security requirements, and had a qualifying sponsor in the U.S. On February 14, 2023, Texas and the 21 other states filed a “preliminary injunction invalidating the program and declaratory relief in the form of declaring such a program to be unconstitutional.”
GOVERNOR ABBOTT’S TRUE INTENTIONS
These two lawsuits (see below chart for side-by-side comparison) in which Texas is a party, one were they insist on using “invasion” rhetoric to legally justify the installation of deadly buoys to keep “illegal migrants” out, while in the other, Texas is directly challenging a federal government parole program that creates a process for lawfully immigrating to the U.S. The positions in these lawsuits seem to signal a clear intent that Texas’ Governor Abbott seeks to deter all migration –lawful or unlawful– by any means necessary as he “announced that he was not “asking for permission” for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier.”
In the meantime, physical and legal barriers continue to entrap asylum seeking families in dangerous locations in Mexico. As evidenced this week, the U.S. Consulate in the northern Mexican border town of Matamoros on Monday said its “employees are currently under a shelter in place order” due to gun violence in the city. While lawsuits play out in court rooms, real people seeking humanitarian aid and safety, endure the consequences of an inadequate, inefficient, antiquated immigration processing system at the border, that is further fueled by “anti immigrant invasion” rhetoric from Texas.
