The controversial fleet of bright orange buoys that Texas deployed in the middle of the Rio Grande to deter illegal crossings, now commonly referred to as the floating border wall, is proving ineffective thus far, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal.
While migrants have been unable to get past or over the 1,000-foot-long chain in the shallow waters of the river off Eagle Pass, Texas, they are simply skirting the barricade and entering at different points along the Rio Grande, according to the report.
And they are coming in record numbers, per the report.
"It's a waste of money and far from effective," Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, also a Border Patrol veteran, told the Journal. "I see it as a political stunt."
According to the office of Gov. Greg Abbott, the impenetrable floating wall is doing exactly what it's intended to do — redirect migrants to legal ports of entry, a spokesperson told the paper.
About 318,000 migrants were apprehended by Border Patrol at Eagle Pass, site of the buoys, from October 2022 until July. An estimated 376,000 were apprehended at the same point a year earlier, before the buoys were deployed.
The deployment of the buoys in July was part of Operation Lone Star, a $9.5 billion state effort aimed at fortifying border security at the state level over the gaps Abbott sees in federal border security. And the state intends to add more buoys, despite a lawsuit from the Department of Justice claiming that Texas violated federal law.
"We don't need authority from the federal government to do what we're doing. It has become essentially our duty now to have some role in border security," Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez told the Journal in July.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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