A leading congressman from Texas has accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” federal environmental regulations against the Lone Star State’s immigration policies.
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said a recent decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is likely intended to push President Joe Biden’s immigration preferences, which he described as an abuse of power. The agency last month placed two mussel species on the endangered species list that reside in the precise part of the Rio Grande where buoys were utilized to block unlawful migrants from crossing the river into Texas.
The endangered status of the Salina mucket and the Mexican fawnsfoot mussels could force Gov. Greg Abbott to remove buoys from the portion of the river in Eagle Pass where the species reside, the Washington Examiner reported.
Arrington, the chair of the House Budget Committee, said it is no coincidence that the Biden administration decided to regulate the mussel population amid national debates over the implementation of the buoys to counter unlawful immigration.
“Biden is more concerned about disrupting the habitat of the Mexican mussels than disrupting the operations of Mexican cartels who are destroying the lives of Americans and migrants alike,” Arrington said in a statement last week. “Governor Abbott has the constitutional authority to secure the border and protect his citizens. He should pay no attention to Biden’s shell game.”
The White House and the Department of Interior, which oversees the USFWS, did not respond to The Dallas Express’ request for comment.
The decision from the USFWS came the same day the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Abbott over the buoys, which it claimed presented a danger and jeopardized relations with Mexico.
“This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. “Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy.”
Abbott wrote a letter in July to Biden in response to the legal challenge and said he would not remove the buoys.
“Neither of us wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River,” Abbott wrote. “Yet your open-border policies encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the water, instead of safely and legally at a port of entry.”
Abbott installed the buoys in early July to help counter illegal crossings by migrants. Swimming had become a popular method of crossing the border last year and led to several documented drownings, according to The Guardian.
“If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws,” Abbott wrote to Biden. “By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River.”
The USFWS had been tracking the shrinking population of the Salina mucket and the Mexican fawnsfoot mussels since 1991 when the agency published a notice in the Federal Register on its plan to review the species’ endangered status, the Washington Examiner reported. The agency last reviewed the species in February in a report that concluded they were only found in a section of the river from Eagle Pass toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Arrington said Biden should have taken more notice of the region when people were drowning at high rates amid surges in unlawful immigration due to his policies.
“While Biden has failed to use federal powers to secure the border, he has no problem weaponizing the government to prevent states from doing so in his absence,” Arrington said. “Where was Biden’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s concerns when millions of migrants trampled the mussel’s ‘critical habitat’ while illegally crossing the Rio Grande?”
