Texas governor to defy DOJ request to remove floating barriers in Rio Grande: ‘Texas will see you in court, Mr. President’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice.

“Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,” Abbott wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden following last week’s DOJ request to remove the barriers. “Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”

The Justice Department told Texas on Thursday that it intends to file legal action against the placement of the floating barriers in the Rio Grande as part of the state’s operation along the Texas-Mexico border, according to sources familiar and a letter obtained by CNN.

The Justice Department gave Texas a deadline of Monday at 2 p.m. ET to commit to the removal of the floating border barriers or face legal action, according to the letter sent to Abbott.

The White House responded to Abbott’s decision by slamming his actions as “dangerous and unlawful.”

“Governor Abbott’s dangerous and unlawful actions are undermining that effective plan and making it hard for the men and women of Border Patrol to do their jobs of securing the border. The governor’s actions are cruel and putting both migrants and border agents in danger,” White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said.

He added: “If Governor Abbott truly wanted to drive toward real solutions, he’d be asking his Republican colleagues in Congress, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, why they voted against President Biden’s request for record funding for the Department of Homeland Security and why they’re blocking comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures to finally fix our broken immigration system.”

The Justice Department’s threat of legal action over the floating barriers is based on a clause in the federal law that “prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers.”

The dispute is separate from the ongoing assessment of mistreatment of migrants, which the Justice Department described as “troubling reports.”

The inspector general for the Texas Department of Public Safety has received several additional complaints from DPS personnel on the front lines at the border about the treatment of migrants trying to enter the United States, three sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. Among the complaints are reports that Texas troopers were told to push back migrants into the Rio Grande and ordered not to give them water.

Abbott’s office has denied that any orders have been given that “would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.