The Biden-Harris administration’s open borders policies suffered a defeat in federal court, thanks to a Republican-led state committed to enforcing border integrity — an issue experts say may impact the 2024 presidential election in numerous ways.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the state of Texas can maintain a barrier in the Rio Grande River designed to stop illegal immigrants from swimming from Mexico into the United States. After years of appealing to Washington, Austin erected 1,000 feet of large floating buoys separated by blades to deter cartels from bringing illegal immigrants through that pathway. The Biden-Harris administration almost immediately sued, seeking a preliminary injunction ordering Texas to remove the security apparatus immediately, even before the case was settled.

Governor Greg Abbott (R) hailed the ruling as “a victory for Texas’ historic border security mission.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) noted the buoys assure the safety of lawbreakers, as they “prevent aliens from attempting a dangerous river crossing to enter America illegally.”

“It’s a great win for Texas, and a great win for the United States, because we’re fighting the good fight down here trying to secure the border,” said Texas State Rep. David Spiller (R-68) on the July 31 episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” A judge usually grants a preliminary injunction if the plaintiff seems likely to prevail in court and if the underlying action would cause irreparable harm. “Certainly, there’s no harm to be inflicted. As a matter of fact, the harm is the other way if we don’t do something to help secure our border,” Spiller told Perkins.

The appellate court’s en banc decision reverses an opinion issued last December by a three-judge panel of the same court, which ruled against Texas 2-1. The case turns around whether the barrier floats in a “navigable” part of the river, which would require a federal permit from the Biden-Harris administration.

The administration’s lawsuit said its U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has the right to assess any alleged “risks the barrier poses to public safety and the environment.” The federal government also wanted to “evaluate whether the project is in the public interest.”

The court ruled the objection moot. “The barrier is not within navigable water,” determined the full appellate court in a 105-page ruling last Tuesday.

Critics say concerns about environmental degradation and threats to public safety are merely a smokescreen for the Biden-Harris administration, which they have seen as facilitating the illegal immigration crisis because Democrats view it as politically advantageous to their party. The administration cut barbed wire barriers which Texas erected at the border, enabling waves of illegal immigrants from around the world to flow through. The administration in Washington attempted to reverse the entire legacy of the Trump administration from the outset, revoking the 45th president’s border enforcement policies such as Remain in Mexico, halting the creation of the border wall, and welding open portions of the wall.

Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security also announced it had “temporarily paused” a controversial program flying illegal immigrants from around the world into the United States from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela “out of an abundance of caution.” Critics were surprised by the timing of the suspension, just months before the election.

Election integrity experts have pointed out the danger uncontrolled illegal immigration poses to free and fair elections due to the largely secret, government-directed dispersal of illegal immigrants across the nation combined with states which allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. A 1993 federal law allows anyone who gets a driver’s license to register to vote, and state officials are barred from asking for proof of citizenship. The SAVE Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would require would-be voters to provide documentation establishing their U.S. citizenship if they attempt to become registered voters. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the bill “a generation-defining moment.”

In the absence of federal leadership, border governors have had to divert state resources to assist beleaguered U.S. Border Patrol agents. Governor Abbott touted the broader impact of Operation Lone Star, his own attempt to protect U.S. citizens against overwhelming lawless immigration by invoking state laws. The one-state border enforcement campaign has accomplished 517,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions, more than 45,700 criminal arrests, more than 39,600 felony charges, and seized 506 million lethal doses of fentanyl to date.

Spiller highlighted his own legislation, S.B. 4, which prevents illegal entry outside ports of entry. “It has been a deterrent. What we’re doing is working” for Texas, said Spiller. He credited the legal prohibition with turning the flow of illegal immigration away from Texas toward states with laxer enforcement, such as California. “It doesn’t alleviate the problem for the country. It helps a little bit for the state.”

But state action can only do so much to stop illegal immigrant gangs, cartels, and narcotics trafficking, which has decimated communities nationwide — especially those which bear the greatest brunt of the immigration flow.

“We do see it. We feel it. We feel the financial burden of it. We feel the burden on our hospitals, our schools, our law enforcement, our jails,” Spiller told “Washington Watch.”

Abbott said Vice President Kamala Harris owns the chaos, human trafficking, and deadly impact of America’s open border with Mexico. “I implored the vice president, in her capacity as President Biden’s point-person on illegal immigration, i.e. Border Czar, to take swift action to address nine urgent concerns, including cracking down on human trafficking and preventing more children from being trafficked and abused as a result of the border crisis,” said Abbott last week. “Vice President Harris has never bothered to respond to my letter or even trouble herself to see the border crisis that she helped create.”

The court ruling and state successes give advocates of an orderly, lawful, and safe border hope they will prevail. “We feel good about the ultimate end of the case,” said Spiller. Fueled by the ruling, Texas state officials vowed not to back down until they had a federal partner in the White House.

“I will continue to defend Texas’s right to protect its border from illegal immigration,” said Paxton.