Texas to Deploy Floating Maritime Barrier on Rio Grande to Deter Migrants
The state of Texas has begun deploying a floating maritime barrier on the Rio Grande in an attempt to deter migrants from crossing the border between the United States and Mexico, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Governor Abbott posted a 15-second video on Twitter showing the loading of buoys onto trailers that will be deployed on the river near the border city of Eagle Pass. The Texas Department of Public Safety will oversee the deployment, the governor said in his tweet on Friday.
Abbott, a long-time critic of the Biden administration’s border policies, announced the plan last month for the state to deploy a 300-meter floating barrier. During the announcement, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Steven McCraw touted that the buoy barrier could be “deployed quickly” and said that it is mobile. He explained that the buoy would be anchored to the riverbed and added that the buoys are approximately 1 to 2 meters high, depending on the water level. There are “ways to overcome” the floating barrier, but it “requires a great effort, specialized skills, and equipment to do so,” McCraw stated last month.
The new barrier comes after a series of migrant drownings in the Rio Grande in recent days that left four people dead, including a baby, according to authorities. Last weekend, a woman and a girl were found unconscious in the river, said Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety. A deceased man and woman were found on Sunday and Monday, respectively, he added.
In recent years, migrants have resorted to increasingly risky and often fatal routes to evade detection and enter the United States. In March, a migrant was found dead among a dozen stowaways on a train carriage near Eagle Pass. In 2022, a member of the Texas National Guard drowned in the Rio Grande while attempting to rescue a woman crossing the river. That year was the deadliest for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, with at least 748 people falling victim to the border, CNN reported. Immigrant rights advocates have attributed the increase in deaths at the border to policies that have made it more difficult for immigrants to seek refuge in the United States.
Raja Razek of CNN contributed to this report.
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