The Department of Justice is heading to court on Tuesday to challenge Governor Abbott’s attempts to create a floating barrier along the Rio Grande to discourage migrants from illegally trying to wade or swim across the America-Mexico border.

At the district court for the Western District of Texas, Judge Davia Ezra will hear arguments as to whether the barriers along the Rio Grande should be removed or allowed to remain.

In a lawsuit filed last month, the justice department argued that the barrier violates the Rivers and Harbors Act because Mr. Abbott and the state of Texas did not receive the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, the relevant authority on the matter.

Texas, in its defense, said in a filing that the federal government had failed to defend the border and that the state “has a federal constitutional right to defend itself against invasion from even non-state actors.” 

“I will do whatever I have to to defend our state from the invasion of Mexican drug cartels and others who have tried to come into our country illegally,” Mr. Abbot told Austin’s Fox 7 in July.

The deployment of the buoys, part of Texas’s “Operation Lone Star,” also drew immediate criticism from some Democratic members of Texas’s congressional delegation and other immigration advocates.

Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia criticized the buoys, calling the tactic “cruel and inhumane.” She and other critics have objected to Mr. Abbott’s deployment of razor wire along the banks of the river and the design of the buoys, which feature toothed circular metal plates to deter people from trying to climb over them.

“The situation’s reality is unsettling as these buoys’ true danger and brutality come to light,” Ms. Garcia said in a tweet. “We must stop this NOW.”

Members of Mr. Abbot’s administration, like Christopher Olivarez, a Texas Department of Public Safety lieutenant, defended the buoys in a conversation with Fox News, saying that they are an “added layer of defense to what we have in place already with razor wire, boots on the ground, and boats in the water.”

Reporting from CNN has also suggested that the buoys are likely an ineffective barrier and that migrants are circumnavigating those deployed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.

There are other issues with the buoys that are likely to be sorted out at the court at Austin as well, including a dispute involving America, Mexico, and Texas over where the buoys are situated in relation to the border.

As part of the lawsuit, the justice department has provided documents showing that some of the buoys are anchored on the Mexican side of the border. According to a document filed by the justice department, the majority of the buoys deployed at Eagle Pass are actually in Mexico.

Mexico’s foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, called out America for deploying the barrier on the Mexican side of the border at a press conference earlier this month. 

“What we’re talking about is a very delicate situation on the border, at the Rio Grande — Rio Bravo as we call it,” Ms. Bárcena told reporters earlier this month. “Most of the buoys are on the Mexican side.”

After meeting with the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, she further emphasized Mexico’s concern with the buoys on their side of the border, saying, “I reiterated that it is essential to remove the buoys installed in Mexican territory in the Rio Grande,” in a tweet.

Attorneys for Texas have, in turn, argued that the barrier is not on the Mexican side of the border, telling the court at Austin, “The buoys occupy approximately three percent of the stream’s width and were placed on the shallower, U.S. side of the stream.”