Gov. Abbott planning to expand buoy border barriers in Rio Grande

(NewsNation) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to expand buoy barriers across the Rio Grande to stop migrants from crossing the southern border but is waiting for a court to affirm the state's right to use them.

In an exclusive interview with NewsNation, Abbott said buoys are one of the most effective ways to discourage migrants from trying to cross from Mexico into Texas. He added the cost is “one-tenth” that of a border wall. 

Gov. Abbott spoke with Ali Bradley, who leads NewsNation’s daily coverage of the border. Follow Ali on X and watch "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. central) for her exclusive interview with the Texas governor. How to watch: joinNN.com

“You can expect to see an increase of the buoys in the Rio Grande River,” Abbott said, but added that he is waiting “on a final decision from the court that has to enforce what the Fifth Circuit already told them to enforce before making that investment.” 

In July, the entire appeals court for the 5th U.S. Circuit overturned a previous decision by a divided panel of the court that sided with a federal district judge, who ruled that the buoys must be moved under a preliminary injunction. 

The full bench said the court abused its discretion in granting the injunction.

The broader lawsuit is still underway, where the Biden administration accuses Texas of violating the federal Rivers and Harbor Act. The court will decide the merits of the federal government’s claims. 

Just over a year ago, Abbott spent $850,000 on a 1,000-foot-long barrier of buoys to be anchored in concrete along the Rio Grande, in the waters between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico. 

The series of linked, concrete-anchored buoys stretches roughly the length of three soccer fields in one of the busiest hotspots for illegal border crossings. 

The Justice Department had asked a federal court to order Texas to remove the buoys, saying the water barrier poses humanitarian and environmental concerns along the international boundary, which ignited a legal battle between state and federal officials. 

The buoys were put in as part of Abbott’s border enforcement initiative Operation Lone Star.

Last year, groups who oppose the buoy barrier called it a "political stunt" and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

“We are calling on the State Department to launch a criminal investigation not only of that incident, but also multiple incidents under Operation Lone Star. The buoys at Eagle Pass are part of that campaign of violence against our immigrant communities. I am glad the people of Eagle Pass are resisting," Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, told NewsNation's partner Border Report.

Abbott responded at the time, saying Operation Lone Star "continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden administration’s refusal to secure the border," according to Border Report.

Now, Abbott has credited his plan as being the reason why border crossings have declined. 

“Let's look at the timeline, because you will remember that Joe Biden put his so-called executive order in place where he helped to close the border in June. But if you go back and look at when border crossings began to decline, that was more than a half a year before that, back in last December, and that was after Texas had begun our accelerated operations to deny illegal entry, using the guard, using the razor wire, using the pepper ball,” Abbott said.

“It was the robust, comprehensive approach by Texas that actually led to the decline. Biden just happened to come in and stepped and rode on our coattails.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.