The Biden administration has been fighting Texas tooth and nail over the barriers they put up to keep the illegal Democratic voters from entering through Texas. The case had made it’s way to the the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and that is where it ends for Biden and Mayorkas unless they appeal to the Supreme Court. To do that they will need to find a better argument than the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899.
That act forbids anyone from blocking off navigational waters within the United States. However, the key word is navigational. The barriers were never in a navigational block because those waters are not navigational and therefore the court ruled that there was no violation of the act. Biden’s real objection was that Texas was keeping thousands of illegal Democratic voters out of the state.
Still, the appeals court had to proceed as if RHA and not open borders constituted the real issue.
“We ask: Can the United States likely prove during trial that Texas violated the RHA? That question turns on another: Can the United States likely prove that the barrier is located within a navigable stretch of the Rio Grande? Because the RHA extends only to navigable waters, our answer to this question may — and in our view does — dispose of the first.”
Biden administration officials have fought tooth and nail for every measure that would destroy the United States of America. So it is worth celebrating when they fail.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELOn Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas in a case involving Abbott’s July 2023 decision to install a floating barrier in the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass, Texas, as part of an effort to stem the influx of immigrants crossing illegally into the United States.
The Biden administration, desperate to keep the border open, immediately sued Abbott. Citing the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899, federal officials demanded removal of the floating barrier.
It appears, therefore, that the federal government intended primarily to keep Texas tied up in court over something palpably absurd.
“Accordingly, we now DISSOLVE the stay pending appeal, REVERSE the district court’s order granting a preliminary injunction, and REMAND with instructions to vacate the preliminary injunction and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” the appeals court wrote.
Thus, the barrier remains.
On the social media platform X, Abbott celebrated.
“The Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit just ruled that Texas can KEEP these buoys in the water securing our border. Biden tried to remove them. I fought to keep them in the water. That is exactly where they will stay. JUSTICE!!!!” the governor posted.
In short, by resorting to a 19th-century river navigation law, Biden administration officials exposed both their brazenness and their desperation to keep the border open.
But, as it sometimes does, the American judiciary acted to protect the interests of the sovereign people.
