Biden DOJ Sues Greg Abbott For ‘Dangerous And Unlawful’ Obstacles In Rio Grande

A day after warning Texas to remove the buoys Monday afternoon, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Republican Governor Abbott to force Texas to remove the floating barriers on the Rio Grande.

Officials in the Biden administration criticized Abbott for its “dangerous and unlawful” actions that undermined Biden’s effective border plan.

“President Biden’s border enforcement plans have led to the lowest illegal border crossing rates in more than two years,” White House Assistant Press Secretary Abdullah Hasan told PoliticusUSA.

“Governor Abbott’s dangerous and unlawful actions undermined that effective plan, made it difficult for Border Patrol men and women to do their job of securing the border, and put migrants and border agents at risk.”

President Biden’s plan has been criticized before (including by me) in anticipation of extra chaos as he deals with the end of Title 42, which is a pandemic rule that allows US authorities to deny asylum seekers. But, Biden’s plan actually worked.

“If Governor Abbott really wants to push toward a real solution, he will ask his fellow Republicans in Congress why they oppose President Biden’s requests for increased funding for the Department of Homeland Security and why they are standing in the way of comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that will ultimately repair our broken immigration system,” Hasan added.

This is a point we cover extensively Substack: Republicans have thrown the border into President Biden’s lap, including refusing to fund a border patrol request from the government, which is deeply odd behavior from people who think the problem is so big that killing children is justified.

Abbott’s grossly inhumane border policies were detailed in an email sent by a police officer to his superiors, in which he wrote: “I believe we have crossed an inhumane line” after being ordered to wheel small children and nursing infants back to the Rio Grande.

The officer “suggested that Texas had set razor wire-wrapped barrel ‘traps’ in high-water, low-visibility sections of the river” that had “increased the risk of drowning by forcing migrants into deeper sections of the river.”

So it’s no surprise that Abbott claimed the repeal of Title 42 would “cause catastrophe in the United States.”

But that didn’t happen. An administration official pointed out that President Biden’s new border policies had led to the lowest illegal border crossing rates in more than two years.

Even, Washington Post reports, “Preliminary results are a nearly 70 percent reduction in illegal entries since early May, according to the most recent US Customs and Border Protection data. After two years of record crossings and crisis-level pressure, the Biden administration appears to have better control over the southern border than at any point since early 2021.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Biden administration is fulfilling their goals with humanitarian causes, including supplies of infant formula, diapers, and snacks.

The administration official also pointed out, “We have more than 24,000 agents and officers working to secure the borders day and night.”

They say they took thousands of smugglers off the streets, caught record levels of fentanyl before it even reached our borders, installed advanced border security technologies such as automated surveillance towers and linear ground detection systems, hired additional asylum officers and immigration judges to review asylum cases while increasing support for border communities.

“Republican officials have no plans and are just playing political games,” said an administration official. “Now, instead of taking the border challenge seriously, they are blocking the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that President Biden proposed on his first day in office and oppose the funding needed for border security. Republican officials don’t want a solution; they want chaos.”

It’s really hard to see where the clerical error is in this matter. Critics were unhappy that Biden said he would veto a Republican bill limiting asylum and building more of a border wall. The president also vowed to veto a bill that would cut programs that would allow Ukrainian refugees and migrants the opportunity to live in the US.

But none of those things actually secure borders while maintaining American ideals and values. What Biden is currently doing is actually achieving that goal, even if it’s not perfect.

But no matter what, Biden’s plan worked and was far superior morally to push babies back into the Rio Grande.

Beto O’Rourke demanded that the Biden administration act, and they did it right. “Stop him threading razor wire & medieval drowning contraptions designed to ensnare & mutilate. Stop every illegal thing that he is doing in the border that ends up killing humans. Mr President, we need you to act.” wrote O’Rourke.

There is no justification for Abbott’s atrocities against migrants. President Biden’s plan actually worked. If Abbott really wants to stop the flow of illegal migration, he will work to get more of what the Biden administration needs.

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