Texas has begun construction of its “marine barrier installation,” a floating wall, in its efforts to stop illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border, Gov. Greg Abbott shared on Friday.
“New marine barrier installation on the Rio Grande begins today. Texas DPS is overseeing the project in Eagle Pass. More to come,” Abbott shared in a tweet.
The barrier, which is made up of orange buoys and meant to discourage crossings at the Rio Grande, was first announced by Abbott last month.
The floating wall is part of Operation Lone Star, a multifaceted operation meant to tackle the border crisis and stop illegal immigrants from entering the country through Texas’ border with Mexico.
“This is a new water-based barrier … we can put mile after mile after mile of these buoys,” Abbott said last month while showing an artist’s illustration of the buoy barrier. “What we are doing right now, we are securing the border at the border – what these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border.”
Other Texas officials, including Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw, shared during the marine barrier installation announcement last month that the move will not only discourage people from entering the country, but also the river, which can be extremely treacherous.
“Anytime they get in that water, it’s a risk to the migrants. This is the deterrent from even coming in the water,” McCraw said last month.
Not all are in support of the move from Abbott, as David Donatti, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas, shared with CNN that it was “the latest in a chain of gifts from the state to private contractors to fuel the governor’s manufactured crisis at the border.”
“The floating balls will not address the real and important reasons people are coming to the United States. The buoys are a blight on Texas’s moral conscience,” Donatti said.
In his announcement tweet, Abbott also shared a video on Twitter of the wall being unloaded from a truck as construction begins.
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