Governor Demands Biden Stop Risking Migrant Lives at Texas Border

Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded the Department of Justice’s threat to sue the state over the recent deployment of a floating border barrier, saying, “Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.” The response came in a letter to President Joe Biden asking that he join with Texas to stop migrants from “wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande.”

Citing authority from the U.S. and Texas Constitituions, Abbott told the president “Your ongoing violation of Article IV, § 4 of the U.S. Constitution has left me no other choice,” Abbott wrote in the letter. The governor went on to deny that the historic floating border barrier does not violate the Rivers and Harbors Act — an accusation made by the DOJ in its letter to Abbott on Friday.

“The fact is, if you would just enforce the immigration laws Congress already has on the books, America would not be suffering from your record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” Governor Abbott continued. “Neither of us wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River. Yet your open-border policies encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the water, instead of safely and legally at a port of entry. Nobody drowns on a bridge.”

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The Texas governor laid out the following history regarding migrant deaths in Texas:

• Two years before Texas deployed the floating marine barriers, and a year before it deployed concertina wire, a United Nations agency declared that the border between the United States and Mexico is the deadliest land crossing in the world, with 728 migrant deaths recorded in 2021.
• Before Texas took the action about which you now complain, hundreds of migrants drowned in the Rio Grande River trying to cross the border illegally.
• Before Texas took the action about which you now complain, 53 migrants who illegally crossed the border died in the back of an 18-wheel tractor trailer near San Antonio.
• Before Texas took the action about which you now complain, thousands of Americans lost their lives to the fentanyl that pours across our border daily.

“If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws,” Abbott stated. “By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River.”

Absent assistance from the federal government, Abbott concluded, “In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused.