Texas is responding to a “dire humanitarian crisis” at the Mexican border, justifying the state’s decision to deploy a floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, lawyers for Gov. Greg Abbott are arguing in new court documents as the federal government tries to force the state to remove them.

In a move to combine two lawsuits over the buoys, a team of lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office led by special counsel David Bryant argued that Texas is responding to unprecedented levels of “illegal border crossings” that have created severe risks of human trafficking, fentanyl and cartel violence.

“To reduce these risks by redirecting migrants to ports of entry at bridges, Texas deployed a string of buoys that span less than 1,000 feet of the more than 1,250 miles that the Rio Grande runs along the border,” the state’s attorneys argue.