Border buoys straining ties with Mexico
Texas’ new buoy barrier in the Rio Grande is damaging U.S. relations with Mexico, according to new filings by the Justice Department in their lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott over his latest border tactic.
According to the filing, Mexico has lodged formal protests at the “highest diplomatic levels” going back to June and has canceled a previously scheduled meeting about other matters related to the buoy barrier near Eagle Pass, which they say violates treaties between the two nations. On Wednesday, tensions over the buoys surfaced in a meeting in Ciudad Juárez meant to highlight U.S-Mexico cooperation on other issues.
“Deployment of the Floating Barrier is a source of diplomatic concern, and its continued presence is adversely affecting foreign policy,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
The federal agency is demanding that Texas halt all construction of the barrier and is asking a judge to force the state to remove it until the case is resolved.
Abbott has continued to dig in, declaring on the Newsmax cable channel on Thursday that the buoys are helping block illegal border crossings and doing the job he said President Joe Biden has refused to do on immigration.
“Texas is stepping up as the fighter for the freedom and sovereignty of this country and we need the United States to step up and do its job,” Abbott said on “The Chris Salcedo Show.”
The Justice Department filed suit on Monday against Abbott, arguing the buoy system violated the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, which requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval before any barriers can be placed in any navigable water in the United States. Abbott did not seek permission beforehand and has said in other interviews that he doesn’t believe that act applies to what Texas is doing.
While the suit focuses on the Rivers and Harbors Act, the federal government explained at length in the new filings made Wednesday that the move is also eroding relations with Mexico.
Mexico’s delegation to the International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages treaties related to the river, has formally objected to the buoys and canceled a meeting planned for earlier this week to discuss other river flow issues.
In Ciudad Juárez on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar was meeting with Chihuahua Gov. Maru Campos to highlight how the countries are working to disrupt human smuggling networks. Salazar said that through cooperation, the two countries had been able to dismantle several smuggling networks. But he was also trying to reassure Mexican authorities that the U.S. government did not support Abbott’s “illegal” actions with the buoys.
Campos said she worried about the danger the buoys could pose to people.
“Beyond politics, we cannot set aside respect for people’s lives and dignity,” Campos said, according to Border Report, which attended the meetings.
Earlier this month, Abbott had state officials begin deploying the first 1,000 feet of buoy barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. The buoys are each 4 feet in diameter and rotate when touched, preventing people from climbing over them. The buoys also have netting below the surface to prevent people from going under them.
But it’s not just Mexican officials raising concerns. U.S. Border Patrol has raised concerns that the barriers could impede their ability to get to people struggling in the water. In the Justice Department lawsuit, the agency uses statements from Border Patrol that warn anything placed in the water can pose a danger to their officers and the migrants trying to cross.
“Any obstructions in the water could naturally impair the freedom of movement and potentially delay response times,” Jason D. Owens, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said in a statement.
Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has intentionally blocked Border Patrol from getting to parts of the river near Eagle Pass to help migrants. In one section where Border Patrol set up a station with water, toilets and shade to assist migrants in distress, Texas Department of Public Safety placed razor wire to keep Border Patrol from getting to the river and migrants from getting to the shade and water.
On Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was asked about whether Texas’ activities had been getting in the way of his agents.
“Law enforcement is most effective when it is executed collaboratively, in cooperation,” Mayorkas responded.
Abbott has focused on Eagle Pass because it has become one of the most crossed sections of the entire U.S. border during the Biden administration. Once one of the least crossed sections, the area around Eagle Pass has become a popular crossing point because of the relative safety of Piedras Negras, Mexico.
In June, 1 of every 4 border encounters with migrants along the entire U.S. border came in the sector around Eagle Pass. Border Patrol statistics show 25,000 encounters in the sector around Eagle Pass — the most of any section of the border.