Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) is proceeding with the installation of a $1 million wall of floating buoys along the U.S.-Mexico border despite the filing of a lawsuit against the operation.
This week, a Texas Department of Public Safety official shared a video showing construction workers in Eagle Pass, Texas connecting a series of large red floating buoys that resemble enormous spheres. This novel deterrence system has been referred to by the state as a “marine barrier.”
“The State of #Texas is taking historic action under Gov. [Abbott’s] Operation Lone Star to secure the border. Installation of the marine barrier began today in #EaglePass. The marine barrier will deter unlawful crossings & human smuggling, & prevent the loss of life due to drownings. #MarineBarrier,” Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez tweeted Monday afternoon.
Abbott said that the Texas Legislature appropriated $5.1 billion to secure the border and that Steve McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, and Thomas Suelzer, a general in the National Guard, “came together to employ this strategy.”
“Today, public enemy number one are the Mexican cartels,” McCraw said at the news conference. “The most powerful and ruthless and violent criminal organization in the world right now. They impact every community in Texas.”
Texas Builds New Barriers Amid Migrant Influx
The first 1,000 feet of beacons will be placed along the river near Eagle Pass, which is adjacent to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, according to McCraw. McCraw stated that “nobody” should attempt to enter the United States between ports of entry, labeling it “dangerous” and a risk to the lives of migrants.
“We don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he said. In fact, we want to prevent people from being injured and drowning. David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told HuffPost that the buoys will not resolve anything serious.
“The chain of buoys along the Rio Grande is just the latest in a string of gifts from the state to private contractors to fuel the governor’s manufactured crisis at the border,” he stated. “The floating balls will not resolve the actual and significant motives for immigration to the United States. The buoys are a moral stain on the state of Texas.
Abbott and DPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Abbott stated at the outset of the news conference, prior to signing several border security measures into law, that the federal government had failed to secure the Texas-Mexico border.
“As a result, Texas has had to take unprecedented steps in responding to the crisis caused by the Biden administration on the border. And in response, the Texas Legislature has stepped up to make sure that we will be able to more robustly respond.”
Read also: Texas Sends Second Bus of Migrant in California Ahead of July 4th
Source: Washington Examiner, HuffPost
