The change of command reflects the positive partnership between the state and President Donald Trump, according to the office of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX).

“The floating marine barriers deployed by Texas were originally designed by Border Patrol to deny illegal entry. When former President Biden refused to use them, Texas stepped up and deployed the barriers to deter and repel illegal river crossings — these have been so successful that not a single migrant has attempted to cross over them,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement to the Washington Examiner Friday. “President Biden was hostile to these border security efforts, but now we finally have a partner in the White House who is working with Texas to protect our state and nation.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety, the police force that has overseen the installation and management of the buoys, recently declared that the 2,000-foot floating barrier will soon be entrusted to the Trump administration.

“In a conversation with the federal government, just in the last couple of days, they love the idea, and they’re going to make a large investment and take over the buoy barrier operations in Texas, which is going to be a huge benefit to us,” said Texas DPS Director Freeman Martin in a statement on Feb. 28.

The idea of using buoys as a barrier was developed by the Border Patrol but was not supported by officials in the Biden administration. Shortly after, Texas latched on to the buoy idea and developed the red balls that now float between Eagle Pass and the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras.

White House border czar Tom Homan touted Friday that Abbott had been a “great governor,” “great partner,” and “great friend” through the Biden years and proven to be aligned with Trump’s border policies.

“Governor Abbott did more to secure the border than the entire Biden administration did. He had illegal immigration in Texas down, what, 76%? And that’s just the state of Texas working,” said Homan to reporters outside the White House. “What Governor Abbott did not only saved the citizens of Texas but all the fentanyl that comes across. I look forward to working with Governor Abbott.”

Selene Rodriguez, campaign director for the Secure and Sovereign Texas campaign at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Washington Examiner that having the federal government focus on ground zero at the border would allow the state to focus its resources on immigration-related concerns within Texas.

“It would be absolutely beneficial to the state if the federal government took over the buoys,” said Rodriguez in a phone call Thursday, adding that immigrant crossings are down significantly, but cartels and criminals within Texas communities remain a serious threat.

“The state would focus inward on our communities and removing cartel actors,” said Rodriguez. “If we can get the federal government to take care of maintaining [border] infrastructure [such as the buoys and concertina wire], we can then have the resources to do [interior operations].”

The Abbott administration hopes to continue adding buoys in the vicinity through the transition process and most recently doubled the length of the buoys in January.

“I know for a fact that the governor does intend to continue to expand the buoys and [concertina] wire,” Rodriguez said in a phone call Wednesday.

The ownership transition of the buoys is tied to when the Trump administration will end a Biden administration lawsuit over the state’s installation of the buoys, which was marked as temporarily resolved last month.

The State of #Texas is taking historic action under Gov. @GregAbbott_TX’s Operation Lone Star to secure the border. Installation of the marine barrier began today in #EaglePass. The marine barrier will deter unlawful crossings & human smuggling, & prevent the loss of life due to… pic.twitter.com/4PYy25RDFr

— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) July 10, 2023

The barriers were put into place in 2023 to deal with high illegal immigration levels in Eagle Pass.

In May 2023, the Del Rio Sector, which includes Eagle Pass, reported more than 26,000 illegal immigrant arrests, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

The following month, as immigrants were crossing in large numbers from Piedras Negras, Abbott announced the state would install a short, 1,000-foot strip of buoys to prevent river crossings. The project cost $1 million.

By July 2023, a strand of large red buoys had been placed in the center of the Rio Grande. The barrier, essentially the maritime version of a wall, was meant to deter immigrants from crossing in certain areas. Other nearby areas contained long stretches of concertina wire that the Texas National Guard had on the U.S. riverbank.

The Biden administration asked Abbott to take down the buoys that July, but Abbott refused. The government of Mexico also sent Texas a complaint letter over the buoys, saying it risked violating the Water Treaty of 1944.

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper assigned to Eagle Pass internally complained to superiors that the state’s increasingly militarized border had become “inhumane.”

The inspector general for the state’s DPS has launched an investigation into a trooper’s alarming report that state-driven border security efforts have led to horrific repercussions for immigrants, including death.

Two dead bodies, presumably immigrants who attempted to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico, were found alongside the buoys in August 2023, according to the Mexican government. Texas officials disputed Mexico’s claim that the bodies were tangled in the buoys and said only one body was found and that the person drowned upstream and drifted downstream toward the buoys.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Abbott that ordered the state to remove the floating barrier because it posed “threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns.”

In court in August 2023, the Biden administration pushed Judge David Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, a Reagan appointee, to side against the Abbott administration.

The state and federal governments made it to court in October 2023. Texas attorneys argued that the “invasion” at the international border bestowed upon the state the right to defend itself, but Ezra reversed the move.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans quickly paused Ezra’s ruling and allowed Texas to keep the buoys in the river. The appeals panel later sided with the lower court.

In mid-2024, the appeals court decided Ezra should never have granted the Biden administration a preliminary injunction.

Now, Texas is just waiting for the Trump administration to drop the case. The Justice Department is moving quickly behind the scenes to dissolve legal challenges to the buoys.

On Feb. 3, the DOJ filed an unopposed request that the court stay, or stop, all court proceedings, citing a “change in the Presidential administration.” Court documents show that Ezra agreed to the order and signed on Feb. 7, which could expedite the buoy transfer.

GREG ABBOTT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CROSSINGS IN EAGLE PASS NEARLY CEASE UNDER TRUMP

Abbott has vowed to invest in more buoys, but not until he receives “a final decision from the court that has to enforce what the Fifth Circuit already told them to enforce.”

The Texas Military Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.