In a hearing before the 5th Circuit court of appeals, lawyers on behalf of Texas tried to argue both that the giant buoys the state has deployed in the Rio Grande are necessary to ward off an “invasion” of immigrants, and that the Rio Grande is more of a creek than a river—because if it is “navigable” then the federal government has authority over it.

This hearing intersects with several of the issues around Texas trying to make crossing the Rio Grande as inhumane as possible. A lawyer for the DOJ phrased it succinctly: “Their argument is, once they say invasion ‘We can do anything we want for as long as we want.’ We don’t think that’s right.”

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)