Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday the state is installing “marine floating barriers” to deter illegal immigrants from crossing the Rio Grande River. The new barriers will be set up at illegal crossing hotspots, with the first deployed near Eagle Pass, which Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw called the “the center of gravity for smuggling.”
The inflatable balls spin when one tries to climb them, “making it more difficult to cross the Rio Grande and reach the Texas side of the southern border,” Abbott’s office said in a press release.
Installation of the buoys is beginning “pretty much immediately.”
“We can put mile after mile after mile of these buoys,” Abbott said at a press conference. “We’re securing the border at the border. What these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border.”
According to McCraw, there will also be “webbing” underneath the buoys to deter swimming beneath them. Abbott signed six border security bills on Thursday to help Texas stop illegal immigration at the border and give law enforcement “new tools” to do their jobs.
Senate Bill 423 (Paxton/Wilson, T.M.) provides Texas military forces the authority to use unmanned aircrafts as part of an operation, exercise, or mission. The bill legalizes the use of drones for search and recovery missions after natural disasters and for monitoring the Texas-Mexico border as part of Operation Lone Star.
Senate Bill 602 (Birdwell/Harless) expands the authority of U.S. Border Patrol agents who have completed a DPS training program to include arrest, search, and seizure at established border checkpoints and points of entry for felony offenses under Texas law. Current law only allows agents to detain certain individuals at these locations.
Senate Bill 1133 (Blanco/King, T.) creates a grant program to compensate agricultural landowners up to $75,000 for property damage caused by trespassers committing a border crime, such as the smuggling of persons, evading arrest, human trafficking, or a drug offense. Increased migrant traffic and law enforcement activity has left many landowners with significant financial losses and property damage.
Senate Bill 1403 (Parker/Spiller) authorizes the Governor to coordinate and execute an interstate compact for border security among interested states without congressional approval. The compact will allow participating states to share law enforcement intelligence and resources for heightened detection and deterrence of illegal border activity and will further protect personnel and property to overcome continued shortcomings of existing federal border policy.
Senate Bill 1484 (Creighton/Holland) creates a collaborative border operations training program through DPS for peace officers employed by local law enforcement agencies along the border. The bill will allow DPS to share expertise in identifying and preventing of transnational criminal activity to local authorities.
Senate Bill 1900 (Birdwell/Guillen) designates Mexican drug cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in the State of Texas and increases penalties for the destruction of illegal drugs and the operation of stash houses. This bill also adds foreign terrorist organizations to current intelligence databases and allows local entities to seek public nuisance claims against them. Governor Abbott issued an executive order last September designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and has requested President Joe Biden take similar federal action. (Office of the Texas Governor)
“Thanks to the leadership and hard work of Director McCraw, General Suelzer, and their teams, Texas has pushed back against the swell of migrants and held the line to keep people out of Texas—but there’s more that needs to be done,” Abbott said in a statement. “The Texas Legislature has stepped up to make sure we continue to robustly respond to President Biden’s growing border crisis, including allocating $5.1 billion for border security. Today, I am signing six bills from this year’s regular session to ensure that Texas can continue to do even more to stop illegal immigration at our southern border and provide new tools to the brave men and women along the southern border to protect Texans and Americans from the chaos and crisis of the border.”
