On Thursday, June 8th, Texas Governor Greg Abott addressed the illegal entry of migrants from Mexico into the United States by declaring that a 1,000-foot buoy barrier will be placed throughout the Rio Grande. This floating barrier is planned to be deployed on July 7.
The Rio Grande forms the border between Texas and Mexico and is the primary place migrants use to make illegal crossings.
These four feet tall buoys will be individually anchored to the floor of the Rio Grande, forming a chain along the center of the river. According to Fox 4 News, the buoys are “equipped with weights and netting, and designed to rotate to keep people from scaling them.” The total cost of 1,000 feet of buoys is approximately $1 million.
According to The New York Times, although the barrier would not cover the entire 1,254-mile Texas-Mexico border, Abott said at a news conference, “We can put mile after mile after mile of these buoys. When we’re dealing with gatherings of 100 or 1,000 one of the goals is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible.” Once all buoys are deployed, he plans to move some to paramount areas. The buoys are expected to be able to be deployed quickly and moved easily. They are both tested and designed by the U.S. Border Patrol.
As stated in CNN by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw in an article by CNN, “We don’t want anybody to get hurt. In fact, we want to prevent people from getting hurt, prevent people from drowning, and this is a proactive way.” Many past migrants have drowned in the Rio Grande as they attempt to cross into the U.S. Each day, deputies have been pulling out at least one dead body from the river each day. In addition to the risk of drowning by the unpredictable currents of the Rio Grande and debris in the river, the barriers would pose another challenge to the migrants and greatly reduce the probability of successfully immigrating. Having this barrier will decrease the numbers of deaths and attempts of migrants to cross the border by showing that crossing into the U.S. is not as simple as just swimming across a river.
McGraw admits that the buoy barriers are not 100 percent able to prevent migrants from crossing over, but overcoming the buoys will take lots of effort and equipment. Deploying this barrier will certainly slow down most of the migrants.
The Rio Grande forms the border between Texas and Mexico and is the primary place migrants use to make illegal crossings.
These four feet tall buoys will be individually anchored to the floor of the Rio Grande, forming a chain along the center of the river. According to Fox 4 News, the buoys are “equipped with weights and netting, and designed to rotate to keep people from scaling them.” The total cost of 1,000 feet of buoys is approximately $1 million.
According to The New York Times, although the barrier would not cover the entire 1,254-mile Texas-Mexico border, Abott said at a news conference, “We can put mile after mile after mile of these buoys. When we’re dealing with gatherings of 100 or 1,000 one of the goals is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible.” Once all buoys are deployed, he plans to move some to paramount areas. The buoys are expected to be able to be deployed quickly and moved easily. They are both tested and designed by the U.S. Border Patrol.
As stated in CNN by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw in an article by CNN, “We don’t want anybody to get hurt. In fact, we want to prevent people from getting hurt, prevent people from drowning, and this is a proactive way.” Many past migrants have drowned in the Rio Grande as they attempt to cross into the U.S. Each day, deputies have been pulling out at least one dead body from the river each day. In addition to the risk of drowning by the unpredictable currents of the Rio Grande and debris in the river, the barriers would pose another challenge to the migrants and greatly reduce the probability of successfully immigrating. Having this barrier will decrease the numbers of deaths and attempts of migrants to cross the border by showing that crossing into the U.S. is not as simple as just swimming across a river.
McGraw admits that the buoy barriers are not 100 percent able to prevent migrants from crossing over, but overcoming the buoys will take lots of effort and equipment. Deploying this barrier will certainly slow down most of the migrants.
