MIAMI – Texas officials ignored warnings about the illegal installation of buoys in the Rio Grande, on the border with Mexico, because it is a federal jurisdiction, according to official documents obtained by the newspaper The Dallas Morning News.
The floating barrier with barbed wire, facing already a legal claim of illegality by the Government of Joe Bidenis part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Lone Star initiative to stop the arrival of migrants.
Two bodies of migrants were found last week in the Rio Grande, also called the Rio Bravo, deaths that the Mexican government attributes to the buoys.
According to the Texas newspaper, the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), which controls the Rio Grande, warned a Texas Highway Patrol officer last April that areas associated with the tributary were under federal jurisdiction.
The defendant would have tried to escape, jumping into the Rio Grande to swim to Mexico.
“The State of Texas, operating through various entities, including, but not limited to, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) (and its contractors) is not authorized to be present on Federal property that it manages, owns, and/or or controls the United States International Boundary and Water Commission,” the federal agency said at the time.
However, according to the newspaper, the warnings began in December, long before the installation of the buoys began.
Abbott’s Lone Star operation began in 2021 with the deployment of soldiers and police to the border and as of July incorporated some 300 meters of buoys off Eagle Pass (Texas), which according to the US and Mexican governments violate humanitarian laws and bilateral agreements.
The Eagle Pass community has disagreed with the work associated with the river barriers, and rejected the use of a public park to bring migrants there.
