Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has flatly denied that fatalities of migrants this week were caused by a buoy barrier set up by the state in the Rio Grande, despite claims to the contrary by the Mexican authorities.
Abbott’s recently erected border barrier includes buoys in the river, and the Mexican government blames them after the discovery of two deaths, apparently of migrants attempting to enter the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The explanation has been disputed, however, by Abbott’s office.
Abbott’s spokesman, Andrew Mahaleris, said, “The Mexican government is entirely incorrect. Initial reports suggest death by drowning happened before the victim’s corpse reached the fences. A dead corpse was discovered upstream from the barriers in the Rio Grande, as previously reported to Border Patrol by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
In a statement, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had been alerted by the Texas Department of Public Safety about a “lifeless body caught in the southern part of the buoys.” Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety responded, explaining that the river current carried the corpse “down into the buoy,” disproving the buoys’ involvement in the killing. The buoys stretch for a thousand feet, and because it is in shallow water, you may walk across it without too much difficulty.
The water is between knee and waist height,” Olivarez added. The corpse could not have drowned in that area. The buoy has no hardware, cables, hooks, or sharp things attached to it.
While Mexico says that Abbott’s wall violates their sovereignty, they are equally worried about the effect these state measures would have on immigrant rights and safety. The federal government has also sued the state of Texas on concerns that the floating barrier may endanger river traffic and safety along the Rio Grande.
The border tactics of the Biden administration are partly to blame, according to Abbott’s staff, for the deaths of migrants at sea. “If President Biden and President Lopez Obrador of Mexico genuinely cared about human life,” Mahaleris said, “they would fulfill their responsibilities and secure the border.”