A group of Republican members of Congress are invoking Noah’s Ark and an obscure legal theory to defend Texas governor Greg Abbott’s controversial floating border wall in the Rio Grande, after the Justice Department sued the state and claimed the barrier violates federal law.
On Wednesday, a delegation led by US Representative Jodey Arrington of Texas, alongside the Texas Public Policy Foundation, filed an amicus brief in federal court, arguing the Department of Justice is mistaken to argue that the 1,900-mile Rio Grande, the fourth largest river in North America, is a navigable waterway under the definition of federal regulations.
The brief argues that an 1870 court case defines navigable waterways as those used in interstate or international commerce.
Migrants crossing into the US from Mexico walk along large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
“Indeed, if one takes the Book of Genesis literally, then the entire world was once navigable by boats large enough to carry significant amounts of livestock,” the brief reads. “Under the federal government’s theory, these anecdotes would render any structure built anywhere in Texas an obstruction to navigation subject to federal regulation.”
Last month, echoing the arguments from Mr Abbott, Representative Arrington argued that Texas is under “invasion” by drug cartels, so the US Constitutional authorises emergency, military-style action like deploying national guardsmen and building border barriers without federal permission.
“The sovereign states created the federal government,” he said, “not the other way around. When the states entered into that social contract of the Constitution of the United States, they may have ceded some of their authority to the central government but they didn’t surrender their sovereignty.”
Legal experts told The Independent that this interpretation of the Constitution’s “Invasion Clause” is mistaken and has previously been struck down in federal immigration cases.
Last month, the Biden administration sued Governor Abbott, arguing his plan to install thousands of feet of saw-tipped border barriers in the middle of the Rio Grande violating the federal Rivers and Harbors Act by failing to seek permission to build from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The river barrier is also facing a state lawsuit from a river guide named Jessie Fuentes.
“You’ve taken a beautiful waterway and you’ve converted it into a war zone,” he told The Independentlast month.
Other Texas members of Congress have criticised the border barriers, arguing they are putting already vulnerable migrants at greater risk of death or serious injury.
“Today was eye-opening,” Rep Sylvia Garcia of Texas wrote on X this week during a border visit, sharing a video of the orange buoys used in the Rio Grande which are separated with blade saw-like barbed disks. “Seeing the barbaric, inhumane, and ungodly practices in my home state of Texas. This is beyond politics and crosses a line into human rights violations.”
