By: Alicia Chen
Texas is planning to build a barrier of buoys stretching for 1,000 feet in the Rio Grande River to prevent immigrants from entering.
Written by: Alicia Chen
Governor Greg Abbott said on Thursday that the state of Texas has decided to build a floating wall of 1,000 buoys strung together to restrict the number of immigrants entering the U.S. This is one of the most recent actions taken in an effort to prevent migrants from entering the states. Though these buoys are only able to cover a small stretch of Texas's vast 1,254-mile border, Gov. Abbott said that the barrier may be expanded in the future. In a news conference, he stated, “We can put mile after mile of these buoys. When we’re dealing with gatherings of 100 or 1,000, the goal is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible.”
This announcement has been recognized as the latest effort to shed light on the immense
number of immigrants flooding into the U.S.
More than a dozen Republican governors and the governors of the states of Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia have sent local police and National Guards to the border in response to a request made by Governor Greg Abbott during the past few weeks. Though many expected a rush of migrants following the expiration of Title 42 along with the lifting of a few other border restrictions, new control measures were taken, and because of those measures a sharp increase in migration was prevented.
Despite this, Gov. Abbot and other government leaders are criticizing President Biden for not taking necessary steps to further expel the thousands of people that are arriving in the U.S. each day.
The Texas legislature approved a two-year budget last month of 5.1 billion dollars to strengthen border security. Some steps that have been included in this program include the buoy border, the deployment of National Guards and state police, and the spreading of concertina wire, a type of barbed or razor wire that is formed in large coils.
Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned that other versions of the barrier would have spikes. The current version that is to be built by the company Cochrane USA will cost approximately 1 million dollars. Residents and officials of Eagle Pass, a small town that has been a hot spot for crossing immigrants, fully consent to this plan. The Mayor, Roberto Salinas Jr., stated that “If this means less people will be crossing illegally through the heart of Eagle Pass, we support it. We want to avoid any interruptions to our international bridges and our downtown businesses.
Mayor Salinas went on to say, “People shouldn’t be crossing there, to begin with,” after being asked if he was concerned about whether or not the barrier created dangerous conditions for incoming immigrants.
Roberto De Leon, the chief deputy sheriff in Maverick County (which includes Eagle Pass and other locations), said, “Anything that keeps us from finding a dead body on the side of the river, I’m for.” He mentioned further that so many migrants were attempting to cross each day in that area that deputies were dragging a few dead bodies from the river daily.
The barrier had been tested, and it was proven that the wall of buoys would be very difficult to cross. It would be impressive if any man manages to maneuver around it. Many are concerned about the danger this poses to migrants, especially those with children, but Mr. McCraw insisted that it would discourage people from so much as trying to swim across. “This is a deterrent from even coming in the water.”