Despite the red-hot political undertones in the U.S. Justice Department’s claim versus Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the buoy barrier setup in the Rio Grande, the federal judge administering over the case made clear that any political factorstoconsider will get brief shrift in his courtroom.
“This is a United States district court. It’s not Congress. It’s not the president,” Senior U.S. Judge David Alan Ezra informed the legalrepresentatives for both sides Tuesday throughout the veryfirst hearing in advance of a coming trial. “I am not here to engage in any type … of political remark in this choice.”
The choice priorto the 35-year veteran of the federal bench is whether the string of buoys drifting as a border barrier in the global river near Eagle Pass must be gottenridof pending the result of the case.
Testimony from 3 professional witnesses rested on whether Abbott required approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers priorto putting the 1,000 feet of giant orange balls that are connected to 68 concrete obstructs weighing 3,000 pounds each.
Abbott and legalrepresentatives for the state of Texas have firmlyinsisted the guv acted under his legal authority to safeguard the state from an “invasion” triggered by illegal migration and drug trafficking.
But the Justice Department, both in court files and throughout witness questioning Tuesday, stated that, under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, the Corps of Engineers needto indication off on structures positioned in any accessible U.S. waters.
Patrick K. Sweeten, Abbott’s basic counsel, parried with Joseph Shelnutt of the Corps of Engineers over whether the area of the Rio Grande that streams inbetween Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, is infact accessible.
Sweeten revealed a copy of a 1975 researchstudy explaining the area as shallow and narrow and that no prepares were in location to make it more congenial to industrial boat traffic.
Shelnutt, a Corps of Engineers compliance and enforcement supervisor, firmlyinsisted that the area still falls under the Corps’ meaning of a accessible waterway.
State Department witness: Buoys obstructing U.S. relations with Mexico
A 2nd witness for the Justice Department, Hillary Quam, who works as the U.S. State Department’s organizer with Mexico on border matters, stated the buoys are obstructing relations with the 2 nations.
Mexico’s annoyance threatens to stall settlements to upgrade the 2 nations’ water-sharing contract and is makingcomplex other matters in U.S. interests, Quam stated. When Sweeten attempted to guide the testament towards the damage that illegal migration and drug trafficking were causing on binational relations, Ezra cut him off numerous times.
At one point, Sweeten asked Quam about Abbott’s choice to assistance curt