According to reports, in order to stop illegal immigration over the Rio Grande, Texas has set up massive buoys equipped with underwater nets.
Last month, Steve McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the buoys’ primary purpose is to prevent illegal immigrants from reaching the border in the first place.
A Texas periodical reported on Monday that the first buoys had been launched. A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said erecting the barricades may take two weeks. According to the report, the 1,000 feet of the river at Eagle Pass, wherein Border Patrol has observed the second-largest migrant crossing counts this year, would be covered with buoys and nets tied to the riverbed.
The new policies are implemented while border states continue to struggle to cope with the influx of migrants. Since President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021, nearly 5 million illegal migrants were caught entering illegally, but this statistic includes those who have illegally crossed before. The Border Patrol apprehended more than 67,000 people in May, while 15,780 escaped. Since the Title 42 immigration limitation from the epidemic period was repealed on May 11, fewer migrants have been detained at the border.
The new maritime barrier construction along the Rio Grande was announced by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), who tweeted a video showing the buoys.
During the Biden administration, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has not been efficient. The government has increased the funding it provides to contractors tasked with finding safe, permanent homes for migrant children, despite losing track of roughly 100,000 of them.
Reports reveal that in 2021 and ’22, the Office of Refugee Resettlement paid almost $6 billion to contractors and charity organizations, up from $1.7 billion in 2020, according to documents collected by the Functional Government Institute and shared with the media. The organization lost track of over 100,000 youngsters whose placements with alleged adult relatives or supposed sponsors were waiting for court dates. It is all funded by taxpayers.
