Mexico’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, met with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday. She complained that the buoy barrier placed in the Rio Grande River by Texas Governor Greg Abbott must be removed.
Barcena said more than once that the buoy barrier is on the Mexican side of the river. Governor Abbott disagrees.
“What we’re talking about is a very delicate situation on the border, at the Rio Grande — Rio Bravo as we call it,” Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena told reporters at the State Department at a joint news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Most of the buoys are on the Mexican side.”
This was not a slip of the tongue, as Bárcena made the point repeatedly Thursday during her first visit to Washington since becoming Mexico’s top diplomat two months ago.
Grato encuentro con @SecMayorkas sobre temas contingentes y de medio plazo. Reiteré que es esencial la remoción de las boyas instaladas en territorio mexicano en el Río Bravo. Confirme la disposición de Mexico por abrir más vías de movilidad regular, ordenada y segura. pic.twitter.com/IKmFH2RICx
— Alicia Bárcena (@aliciabarcena) August 10, 2023
Pleasant meeting with @SecMayorkas on contingent and medium-term issues. I reiterated that it is essential to remove the buoys installed in Mexican territory in the Rio Grande. Confirm Mexico’s willingness to open more routes for regular, orderly and safe mobility.
Governor Abbott and other Texas officials say they were careful to keep the 1,000-foot barrier near Eagle Pass on the Texas side. The Biden administration is also opposing the buoy barrier. DOJ asked a federal court to order the buoy barrier removed on July 24. DOJ cites a 19th century law that bars unauthorized construction in a navigable waterway. The Army Corps of Engineers claims that Texas didn’t receive the necessary permission to put up the buoys. The response from the state in federal court in Austin on Wednesday was, “The buoys occupy approximately 3% of the stream’s width and were placed on the shallower, U.S. side of the stream.” Texas insists that the barrier does not cross the line.
Reporters asked why the U.S. government hasn’t already stepped in and removed the buoys. Never mind that the case is in federal court now.
At their joint news conference, Blinken and Bárcena were asked why their respective governments hadn’t already stepped in and removed the buoys, given the United States deems them illegal and Mexico deems them a territorial incursion.
“Simply put, we’re a country and a government that proceeds by rule of law,” Blinken said, citing that pending lawsuit. “We need to let this legal process play out. … That is the proper and appropriate way to proceed for a country that operates by the rule of law.”
Bárcena indicated that Mexico is likewise pinning its hopes on the Justice Department lawsuit.
“We are very much concerned about this topic and grateful that the Department of Justice of the United States has brought a lawsuit against the government of Texas,” she said. “Let’s see what the federal court says and what can be done to solve this matter in short order.”
Kudos, Biden. Mexico is “grateful” that DOJ is battling the attempts by Texas to protect Americans at the southern border.
The Biden administration doesn’t honor the requests for help with securing the southern border by border states, including Texas, yet it won’t support what efforts Texas makes to secure the border with Mexico. Then, when push back comes from Mexico, the Biden administration sides with Mexico. Immigration is a responsibility of the federal government. Biden’s top responsibility as president is to protect the homeland. Open borders is a dereliction of duty. Biden should be impeached. Mayorkas should be held responsible for his willful negligence of duty. Texas and Arizona are on their own.
Why isn’t Mexico stopping illegal immigration on its side of the border? Mexico doesn’t want the people, either. Mexican officials help migrants along the way to the U.S. border. No one puts up any barriers to stop them from getting to a place to cross, whether it is a legal port of entry or not. The buoy barrier is not at a legal port of entry, it is at a place along the Rio Grande River at Eagle Pass that has become a frequently used place to cross by migrants.
The river is about 200 feet wide where the buoy barrier was placed last month and at most about 4 feet deep, according to affidavits included in a response Texas filed Wednesday to the Justice Department lawsuit.
According to an employee of Cochrane USA, the company that sold Texas the buoys, they’re attached by 12-meter chains to concrete blocks on the riverbed.
Those tethers are long enough to let the buoy barrier shift somewhat.
While Texas is pursuing the legal case in federal court, some Texas Republicans are calling on defunding the Department of Homeland Security.
In Congress, 14 Texas Republicans urged colleagues Thursday to defund the Department of Homeland Security – which includes the Border Patrol, Secret Service and Coast Guard – on grounds the agency tasked with securing the border hasn’t done a good enough job.
“We must use the power of the purse to force President Biden to end the carnage resulting from open borders. No appropriation should fund DHS until the necessary steps are taken to secure the border,” the group wrote to House colleagues, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin. “Simply put, no member of Congress should agree to fund a federal agency at war with his state and people.”
Many of the same lawmakers filed a friend of the court brief Wednesday that pressed the same point the state makes in its new filing in Austin federal court: The 1899 federal law that bans unauthorized construction in a river only applies if the river is wide and deep enough for shipping.
Texas has a right to defend itself from transnational cartels.
“The buoys at issue here have been deployed in a segment of the Rio Grande comprised of sand bars, shallow water, water with inconsistent depths, small islands, large rocks, man-made debris” and logs and stumps, the state told the court.
“No commercial boats, barges, fishing boats, cargo ships or carriers, tankers, or other commercial vessels operate on this segment” and even if that part of the river were navigable, the state asserted, “the buoy system does not decrease the navigable capacity of the river.”
If the Biden administration would do its job, Texas wouldn’t have to do it for them. It would be nice if Mexico would act as a partner against illegal immigration but no one should count on that happening.
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