(Houston) A lawsuit was filed on Saturday against a plan by the US state of Texas to deploy a floating barrier on the Rio Grande to prevent illegal immigrant crossings from Mexico.
This project presented Thursday by the Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott plans to install large floating buoys on the river to dissuade these migrants, nicknamed in Spanish the “espaldas mojadas” (wet backs) from attempting the crossing.
“This installation begins today,” the governor announced on his Twitter account on Friday, posting photographs of trucks carrying large orange buoys.
The Rio Grande, which originates in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (west) before crossing New Mexico and Texas to flow into the Gulf of Mexico (southeast), acts as a natural and international border between the United States and Mexico for about 2000 km. In Mexico, it is called the Rio Bravo.
It is also governed by treaties between these two countries.
“These buoys will prevent people from approaching the border. And this process begins more or less immediately, ”also announced the governor during his press conference.
Steve McCraw, director of the department in charge of public safety, for his part, specified during this conference that the system was intended to deter migrants from attempting the crossing and drowning and that it would be deployed over approximately 300 meters at the height from a crossing point called Eagle Pass.
Governor Greg Abbott regularly accuses Democratic President Joe Biden of not taking the necessary steps to prevent the arrival of waves of migrants from Mexico, and has announced that he will take action himself.
The US federal administration did not immediately react to this announcement, but a local entrepreneur took the lead on Saturday to try to block the measure.
Jessie Fuentes, owner of Epi’s Canoe and Kayak Team, a company that organizes kayak tours in particular, took legal action “because the site planned for the installation of these buoys is exactly where he organizes his activities and this will undermine to its operations,” his lawyer, Carlos Flores, told AFP.
According to him, the governor is not “competent” and this type of installation requires federal authorization.
The governor for his part replied on Twitter that the State of Texas had “the constitutional right to defend its borders”.