Gov. Greg Abbott is touting a new system of marine barriers being installed in the Rio Grande as his latest attempt to mitigate the unlawful migration crisis at the southern border.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, buoys will be deployed along high-traffic parts of the river with the hope that they will prevent at least some people from crossing unlawfully.
“The Texas Department of Public Safety [DPS] is overseeing the installation of new marine barriers on the Rio Grande,” Gov. Abbott announced on Friday. “President Biden refuses to secure the border. Texas continues to hold the line in his absence.”
“In addition to [razor wire], we now have buoys in the water to prevent people from even crossing the middle part of the Rio Grande River and coming into the state of Texas,” Abbott said in an emailed statement received by The Dallas Express.
“Because Texas has done such a prolific job of stopping people from coming into our state, you are seeing a massive increase in the number of people crossing into New Mexico, Arizona, and California,” Abbott claimed.
However, the new measure has spurred a lawsuit against the state by a small kayaking business that claims the buoys would cause irreparable harm to its operations.
In the suit, EPI’s Canoe & Kayak Team LLC claimed, “If the buoys are installed, EPI will sustain profit loss. As described herein, the Rio Grande is EPI’s lifeblood, and without access to same, as it is legally entitled to, EPI will not be able to operate.”
The lawsuit further alleges, “Through Operation Lone Star … [d]efendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of targeting Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and immigrants from Latin America who reside at or who are located at or near the United States border without legal authority and in violation of the Texas Administrative Procedures Act.”
In a press release, the Office of the Texas Governor stated, “Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to over 390,500 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 30,800 criminal arrests, with more than 28,700 felony charges reported. In the fight against fentanyl, Texas law enforcement has seized over 421 million lethal doses of fentanyl during this border mission.”
Additionally, Texas has bused over 25,000 migrants out of the state to self-declared sanctuary cities, including Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” the press release added. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.”
Similarly, DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said on Fox News, “This really shows that right now the State of Texas continues to take unprecedented action in the absence of the federal government to secure the border.”
“[Abbott] has done far more than any other governor as far as securing the border,” he claimed, noting that state agencies are still trying to find additional ways to prevent people from crossing into the United States unlawfully.
“Now, having this marine barrier in place in the middle of the river will deter unlawful crossings and prevent drownings and human smugglers from bringing people across the river into the country,” Olivarez said.