EAGLE PASS, Texas – The state government began deploying what will be a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande River Friday in the latest escalation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multi-million dollar effort to secure the US border with Mexico, which has already including transporting immigrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests.
Dozens of the large spherical buoys were stacked on the platforms of four tractor trailers in a city park near the river.
But even before the huge orange buoys were unloaded from the trailers that transported them to the border city of Eagle Pass, concerns were raised over Abbott’s unprecedented challenge to the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement.
Immigrant advocates raised concerns about drowning risks and environmentalists questioned the impact on the river.
In accordance with Governor Abbott’s schedule, a string of buoys more than 984 feet (300 meters) long will be placed, and in preparation for the boom’s deployment, Eagle Pass authorities have flattened an island near Shelby Park. in that city of 30,000 inhabitants.
“The buoys are another attempt to militarize our border that has an impact on the river,” complained Adriana Martínez, a fluvial geomorphologist who has published studies on the effect of building barriers on the border.
“Like the federal wall, these buoys will change the way the water flows and therefore change the course of the river itself,” Martinez added, according to a statement from the Eagle Pass Border Coalition.
ALERT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN THAT REGION
Eagle Pass, an area that Texas Department of Public Safety Chief Steven McCraw has called “the center of gravity for smuggling,” is the first section of the river where the buoys are installed.
Álex Flores, a filmographer from Eagle Pass, said that “it is necessary to know what permission the state government obtained to demolish an island that alters the ecosystem and the flow of the river.”
“What studies have been done to measure the environmental impact or to show that these efforts reduce border crossings?” Flores asked. “They are operating without regard to the impact on the community or the laws that protect our environment.”
Jessie Fuentes, a retired teacher, said, “The Rio Grande is a river, with wildlife, protected by federal law, and as beneficiaries of this life-sustaining water source, we must protect and respect it.”
