Texas ordered to remove Rio Grande floating barrier, Gov. Greg Abbott promises to appeal

Texas must remove the floating barrier buoys the state placed in the Rio Grande River to deter illegal immigrant crossings, a federal judge ruled Wednesday — but Gov. Greg Abbott wasted no time in announcing he’d appeal.

District Court Judge David Ezra ordered the wrecking ball-sized buoys be taken away by next Friday and banned the Lone Star State from adding any other structures in the Rio Grande — the international boundary between the US and Mexico in Texas — without prior approval from the feds.

Soon after Ezra’s ruling Abbott released a statement, vowing that “Texas will appeal.”

“This ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal. We will continue to utilize every strategy to secure the border, including deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers and installing strategic barriers,” the governor said.

Removal of the 1,000-foot marine barrier is part of a preliminary injunction, not a final ruling in the federal lawsuit.

In July, the Justice Department sued Abbott, arguing he did not have the authority to order the placement of the river buoys.

The Republican governor never sought necessary permission from the International Boundary and Water Commission to install the barrier, the federal agency in charge of the river told The Post in July.

Federal prosecutors argue the string of large, orange buoys — meant to prevent asylum-seeking immigrants from venturing into the waters of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas — are also a “threat to human life.”

While no deaths have been directly linked to the buoys, the body of one migrant who had drowned upstream and became entangled in the barrier was recovered from the notoriously dangerous waterway, state officials have said.

“The buoys are a symbol of the hate-filled and inhumane policies Gov. Abbott has embraced as he continues to wage war on immigrants seeking to make better lives for themselves, as millions of other immigrants have done for hundreds of years in this country,” said Carolina Canizales of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

The state agency in charge of installing the structure told The Post anyone wanting to pass the buoys would need to swim under them.

“The buoys go down a foot below the water line, so anyone wanting to get past them would have to swim at least that far down,” Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez told The Post in July.

The judge’s injunction also said the barrier got in the way of Border Patrol operations, including rescuing migrants from the river, and harmed diplomatic relations with Mexico.

America’s southern neighbor has demanded that the buoys be removed from the Rio Grande, as Mexico controls about half of the waters. A recent study found that most of the buoys were originally placed in Mexican waters.

But none of the controversy has deterred Abbott, who declared he’s ready to take the case to the US Supreme Court.

“Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along,” the three-term governor said.

“Our battle to defend Texas’ sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policies has only begun.”