Body of migrant found in Texas' buoy barrier in Rio Grande

The body of a man who drowned in the Rio Grande was found Wednesday in the floating barrier of buoys installed by the state of Texas to deter migrant crossings from Mexico, officials said.

It was not immediately clear how the man, who was not identified, ended up in the barrier, which runs for roughly 1,000 feet in the middle of the river by the small border city of Eagle Pass. Mexican officials said in a statement that they had been alerted by Texas state police about 2:35 p.m. that the body had been discovered “caught in the southern part of the buoys.”

Officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, whose officers patrol the banks of the river around the barrier, said that the man appeared to have drowned farther up the river and then floated down.

“Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys,” said Steve McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety. “There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”

A spokesperson for the department said the body was found on the Mexican side of the barrier and that Mexican officials had recovered it.

The Mexican government has objected to the placement of the buoys in the river, which were installed without federal approval last month by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas as part of his multibillion-dollar program to use state law enforcement to deter illegal crossings from Mexico.

“The placement of chained buoys by Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry wrote in its statement on the drowning. “We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants of these state policies.”

Under another part of Abbott's program, known as Operation Lone Star, migrants who make it across the river and onto private land in Texas have been arrested and charged with criminal trespassing by state police.

Officers in recent weeks have begun arresting some men who were traveling with their children, separating them from women and the children, who were sent to Customs and Border Protection for processing.

Previously, the state had refrained from arresting any member of migrant families if the children were under 18 years old.

“In the past, they didn't want to break up family units,” said Kristin Etter, a lawyer with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid who represents migrants charged with trespassing under Operation Lone Star. “The policy change is to now to arrest the father and separate the family.”