McALLEN, Texas - In a significant blow to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's efforts to curtail illegal immigration, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the state must relocate a floating barrier on the Rio Grande. The decision came in response to backlash from Mexico and marked the second legal defeat for Texas this week regarding its border operations.

The appeals court's ruling requires Texas to cease all work on the approximately 1,000-foot barrier and relocate it to the riverbank. This decision aligns with the lower court's ruling from September, which Governor Abbott deemed "incorrect" and had anticipated being overturned.

Furthermore, the court's decision comes on the heels of a federal judge's ruling on Wednesday, which allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to continue cutting razor wire that the state had previously installed along the riverbank, despite objections from Texas officials.

For months, Texas has argued that certain parts of the Rio Grande are not subject to federal laws safeguarding navigable waters. However, the judges concurred with the lower court, which sided with the Biden administration. They considered potential threats to navigation, federal government operations, and human life posed by the floating barrier, as stated by Judge Dana Douglas in the opinion.

Governor Abbott promptly criticized the decision, stating it was "clearly wrong" in X, formerly known as Twitter, and announced that the state would seek a rehearing from the court immediately. He also asserted that if necessary, Texas would take the case all the way to the Supreme Court to protect the state from what he referred to as "Biden's open borders."

The lawsuit brought against Abbott by the Biden administration pertained to the linked and anchored buoys, stretching approximately the length of three soccer fields, which Texas installed along the international border with Mexico. This barrier was erected in response to the influx of unlawful border crossings through the area. The lower district court had initially ordered the state to relocate the barriers in September, although Texas' appeal temporarily delayed the implementation of that order.

Under the Rivers and Harbors Act, a law safeguarding navigable waters, the Biden administration filed the lawsuit against Texas. In the dissenting opinion, Judge Don Willet, an appointee of former President Donald Trump and a former Texas Supreme Court justice, argued that moving the barriers would not resolve the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Mexican governments as claimed by the Biden administration. Willet contended that only complete removal of the barriers would meet Mexico's demands and eliminate any "construction and presence" of the barrier.

Notably, nearly 400,000 individuals attempted to enter the U.S. through the section of the Southwest border encompassing Eagle Pass during the last fiscal year. U.S. District Judge David Ezra, in the lower court's decision, cast doubt on Texas' reasoning behind the barrier, charging that the state had failed to provide credible evidence of its significant impact on curtailing illegal immigration.

At the time of reporting, officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection had not issued any immediate comments on the court's decision.

In an earlier photograph taken on July 24, 2023, workers can be seen installing the connected buoys, a measure implemented by Texas authorities to deter migrants from crossing the border in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas.