Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to expand the buoy barriers installed by the state across the Rio Grande river on the border with Mexico, despite recent data showing his efforts did not help reduce illegal migration significantly.
“You can expect to see an increase of the buoys in the Rio Grande River,” Abbott said in an exclusive interview with NewsStation. He added, however, that he is still waiting “on a final decision from the court that has to enforce what the Fifth Circuit already told them to enforce before making that investment.”
However, recent data shows that illegal migration also decreased significantly in Arizona and California, both are blue states without special border security measures like buoys or razor wire. According to federal data, since December, crossings have decreased 86% in Texas, 84% in Arizona, and 55% in California.
The buoys are part of an $11 billion effort to reduce illegal migration.
In July, the entire appeals court for the 5th U.S. Circuit overturned a previous decision by a divided panel of the court, that ruled the buoys must be removed under a preliminary injunction.
There is still a Biden administration lawsuit accusing Texas of violating the federal Rivers and Harbor Act. The Justice Department also asked a federal court to order Texas to remove the buoys among human and environmental concerns.
The buoys were installed last year as part of an effort of stopping migrants from entering the state through the river. Abbott spent $850,000 to install 1,000 of a floating barrier of buoys anchored in concrete along the river, between Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico.
Abbott also told NewsWeek his efforts have helped decrease the entry of migrants.
“It was the robust, comprehensive approach by Texas that actually led to the decline,” Abbott said. “Biden just happened to come in and stepped and rode on our coattails.”
However, numerous organizations have agreed that the decrease in illegal immigration was caused by actions taken by both Mexico and the U.S. federal government.
“I attribute far more of the slowdown to this Mexico deal than to the Texas fortifications, even though the Texas fortifications work OK for managing very slow and sporadic traffic,” Todd Bensman, a fellow at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, told the Houston Chronicle.
He noted that even with the buoys, razor wire and the wall Texas installed, illegal crossings were still setting records until January.
“The objective videoed truth is that those fortifications had been completely overrun for months, right up until that Mexico deal was cut,” he said.
