Eagle Pass is Focal Point of U. S.-Mexico Diplomatic Dispute Due to Buoys in Rio Grande
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2023
Eagle Pass, Texas has become the focal point of an international diplomatic dispute between the United States and Mexico as a result of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s installation of a floating marine buoy barrier in the Rio Grande River in July 2023 as part of Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star border security program implemented since March 2021.
Mexico Secretariat of Foreign Relations Alicia Bárcena during her first official meeting with United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Washington, D. C. on Thursday, August 10, 2023, raised Mexico’s complaint and objection against Abbott’s floating buoys in the Rio Grande River at Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico as violating international treaties between the two countries and posing a danger to asylum seeking migrants crossing the Rio Grande.
Secretariat Bárcena noted that the buoys present a “delicate situation on our border” and that “most of the buoys are on the Mexican side” of the Rio Grande River.
After a lackluster 88th Texas Legislative Session, Governor Abbott announced on June 8, 2023 that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) was installing a 1,000 foot long floating marine buoy barrier in the Rio Grande River to deter undocumented immigrants from crossing into Texas as part of the Operation Lone Star border security program at a hefty price-tag of over $1 million in Eagle Pass, Texas. With the additional cost of installation, the floating buoys are most definitely costing state taxpayers several millions for a publicity stunt of Governor Abbott to feed his political base. At a previous press conference held in Eagle Pass, Governor Abbott proclaimed himself as being the only American politician who is doing something about immigration.
DPS’ Operation Lone Star hired a private contractor to install the controversial buoys in the Rio Grande during early to mid-July 2023 about two miles downstream from the City of Eagle Pass International Bridges I and II along private property owned by Eagle Passans, including Hugo and Magaly Urbina, owners of Heavenly Farms, LLC, a pecan farm.
In addition to installing the floating buoy barrier, DPS’ Operation Lone Star has installed military-grade razor concertina wire in the river and along the banks of the Rio Grande for a distance of seven miles to deter asylum seeking migrants from setting foot on United States soil and funneling them to a detention point where DPS Troopers arrest them and charge them with a misdemeanor Criminal Trespass charge under state law. Before the United States Border Patrol detains and processes the asylum-seeking migrants at the border, DPS Operation Lone Star officers arrest them so they can be charged with a criminal offense prior to legally applying for asylum. The migrants, generally adult males, charged with criminal trespass are then transported to a state processing and detention center in Del Rio, Texas and subsequently transported and detained at the Dolph Briscoe State Prison/Jail in Dilley, Texas to await a state court hearing on their criminal trespass charges for up to 12 months. Although not publicly announced, a consequence of this is to deny all these asylum-seeking migrants their legal right to apply for asylum or immigration legal benefits in the future.
Many asylum-seeking migrants, including women and children, have gotten injured and cut with the razor sharp concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande, requiring medical treatment at the local Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center.
A DPS Trooper/Medic assigned to Operation Lone Star during June-July 2023 emailed his supervisor to advise him that Operation Lone Star was inhumane and officers working were ordered not to provide water to the dehydrated migrants in the river and to push them back into the Rio Grande, including women and children.
On August 1, 2023, the Eagle Pass City Council rescinded its Criminal Trespass Affidavit signed by Mayor Rolando Salinas, Jr. designating the public Shelby Park as “private property’ and authorizing DPS to file criminal trespass charges against asylum-seeking migrants detained at the public park. In addition, DPS took complete control of the city-owned public park and its boat ramp to the exclusion of local citizens access to and use of both. DPS converted Shelby Park as it staging and command center for Operation Lone Star. Despite the Eagle Pass City Council’s rescission of the affidavit, DPS remains in control and in possession of Shelby Park.
On August 3, 2023, DPS contacted the Consulate of Mexico in Eagle Pass and Mexican Migration representatives to advise them that a dead body of a migrant was located on the floating buoys on the Mexican-side of the Rio Grande. DPS Colonel Steve McGraw quickly claimed that the migrant had drowned upriver and floated downstream to the buoys where he got caught. However, in an interview with the mother of the deceased young male migrant, she stated that the water had not killed her son, but rather the buoys had killed her son.
Eagle Pass farmers, Hugo and Magaly Urbina, have repeatedly requested DPS to remove the concertina wire from their property due to the injuries being sustained by migrants, but DPS has not removed the concertina wire. Just days before Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited Eagle Pass and Shelby Park in June 2023 for a photo and video shoot for his Republican Party Presidential Campaign, DPS laid more concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande. Hugo and Magaly Urbina have lost control of their river bank along the pecan farm and cannot fish on the Rio Grande due to Operation Lone Star. Their pecan trees have sustained damages due to the heavy traffic of DPS and Texas National Guard vehicles and equipment driving up and down the pecan farm roads.
The United States Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Governor Abbott and the State of Texas in federal district court in Austin, Texas seeking removal of the floating buoys from the Rio Grande because the state of Texas failed to obtain permission from the Army Corps of Engineers and violated the federal Navigable Rivers and Water Act, as well as seek an injunction from installing any additional floating buoys in the Rio Grande.
The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations sent a delegation of representatives and scientists to Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico for investigating the floating buoys in the Rio Grande led by General Consular Director Vanesa Calva Ruiz during August 10-11, 2023. A press conference was held at the Consulate of Mexico in Eagle Pass office on Friday, August 11, 2023, but results were unavailable as of press time of this publication.
Mexican Secretariat Alicia Bárcena stated that Mexico had received assurances from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the United States was taking legal action against the state of Texas and Governor Abbott to remove the buoys and enjoin them from installing any more buoys in the Rio Grande. Secretariat Bárcena added that Mexico would wait to see what the United States federal courts decide on the pending lawsuit against the state of Texas and Governor Abbott before taking action.
Eagle Pass was carefully groomed and cultivated by Governor Abbott to serve as his Operation Lone Star command center after being turned down in Laredo, Texas by its political and business representatives. With young and inexperienced political leaders, Eagle Pass fell and succumbed to its recruitment by Governor Abbott and is now the focal point of the current United States-Mexico diplomatic dispute caused by the controversial floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande.
One local citizen noted that this is not the type of publicity Eagle Pass wants nor needs just when it is at the cusp of becoming a major international port of entry for export and import trade between Mexico and the United States. Mexico has become the United States number one trade partner, surpassing China. The future is bright for Eagle Pass, but its political and business leaders should not allow themselves to be used again for political publicity stunts.
