Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro called on the Biden Administration to "end all cooperation" between U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety until after the Department of Justice lawsuit against the state is resolved and proper investigations into Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star are held.
He, alongside other Democrats at both the federal and state level as well as border advocates, spoke at a press conference on Tuesday, where he criticized not only Governor Abbott but the federal government as well for the lack of action at the border.
"The Biden Justice Department is allowing the state of Texas to oppress people; to oppress people’s civil rights, in this state," Castro said. "There is no reason the Justice Department should not have intervened by now.”
The barrier of buoys and razor wire were put in place over the summer, at the behest of Governor Abbott and DPS. Since then, it's been met with international scrutiny from the Mexican government, as well as federal judicial action.
Along with filing a lawsuit against the state of Texas and Governor Abbott over the floating barrier of buoys in the Rio Grande, the Department of Justice has asked for an injunction against the buoys, requesting them to be taken down amidst the legal scrutiny.
The DOJ and the state are set to meet in a Travis County courthouse on August 22 to weigh in on an injunction.
A new report from the Dallas Morning News says state leaders were warned months ago that the floating barrier in the Rio Grande violated federal law and international precedent.
Two bodies found in relative proximity to the border buoys raised speculation that the buoys may have caused their deaths. No official cause of death has been determined, and Governor Abbott has disputed the claims the buoys were involved.
Addressing the report, and the claim of the deaths by the floating barrier, Governor Abbott said on social media, "What this story doesn’t tell you is that I informed Biden almost a year ago about Texas’s constitutional authority to secure the border. It also ignores the fact that the buoys used by Texas did not cause the drowning of the 2 bodies. Facts matter."