Texas Expands Installation of Controversial Floating Water Buoys in Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas

By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2024

Emboldened by President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s election as the 47th President of the United States in the recently held November 5, 2024 General Election, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on November 19, 2024 in an interview with Fox News Sean Hannity the State of Texas is installing another (second) 1,000 foot-long floating water buoys in the Rio Grande near the City of Eagle Pass-owned Shelby Park to curb undocumented immigrants from entering the United States through Texas.

Shortly after Trump’s loss to Joe Biden for President in the November 2020 election, Abbott launched together with the Texas Department of Public Safety the controversial “Operation Lone Star” Program on March 6, 2021 to “combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas. The Operation integrates DPS with the Texas National Guard and deploys air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas,” according to Abbott’s Press Release issued on March 6, 2021.

Subsequently, on March 17, 2021 Texas expanded Operation Lone Star to include Anti-Human Trafficking related to illegal border crossings, according to Abbott’s Press Release on March 17, 2021.

Abbott requested the Texas Legislature to appropriate public funds for his controversial Operation Lone Star Program, which the Texas Legislature has now funded approximately $12.5 Billion of state taxpayers monies to pay for Operation Lone Star, including installation of floating water buoys, purchase of land and easements to construct miles of a Texas border wall, construction of a border wall, installation of military-grade razor sharp concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande, hiring of prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officers to bring misdemeanor criminal trespass charges against undocumented immigrants, purchase of security equipment and technology, overtime pay for DPS, Texas Rangers, National Guard soldiers, pay for housing of personnel working on the Operation, construction of a military base for the Texas National Guard on 80 acres of real property in Eagle Pass, Texas to accommodate up to 2,300 soldiers, and much more.

Operation Lone Star under Abbott and state agencies have disallowed United State Border Patrol and Customs Border Protection Officers from entering and doing their federal job regarding national immigration law enforcement at the City of Eagle Pass-owned Shelby Park, seizing complete control of the almost 50 acres public park. Recently, Texas National Guard soldiers were filmed firing pepper spray and rubber bullets against undocumented immigrant families, including children, seeking asylum at or near Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.

Operation Lone Star has caused friction among state and federal law enforcement agencies and personnel regarding immigration law enforcement at the Texas-Mexico border, including Eagle Pass.

The United States government and an Eagle Pass small businessman filed lawsuits against Governor Abbott and Operation Lone Star regarding the installation of the controversial floating water buoys and restrictions on use and access of the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass and Shelby Park. The small businessman dismissed his lawsuit after the United States Department of Justice filed its own lawsuit related to similar issues in federal district court in Austin, Texas.

A federal district judge in Austin, Texas granted the United States injunction against Abbott and Texas requiring the controversial floating water buoys be removed from the Rio Grande because it affected the navigability of the river. Texas appealed to the United States Fifth Circuit and a three judge panel agreed with the federal district judge on a split 2-1 decision, but Texas requested a hearing en banc before all the justices of the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and won a split decision to reverse and remand the case to the federal district judge in Austin, Texas for further proceedings. The case remains pending as of press time.

Hundreds of undocumented immigrants have been injured with the militarization of the Texas-Mexico border as well as drowned in the Rio Grande under Operation Lone Star. Texas blames the undocumented immigrants for risking their lives and injuries or deaths.

Hundreds of Texas, federal, and other states within the United States public officials, legislators, governors, law enforcement, national guard troops, militia, press, and citizens have visited the Texas-Mexico border and reviewed the impact of the controversial Operation Lone Star Program.

The City of Eagle Pass and its taxpayer-owned Shelby Park have been promoted as the epic center of the immigration debate in the United States by state and federal legislators, but when they were presented an extremely conservative partisan bill in Congress in December 2023 to reform the American immigration system and laws in more than 40 years they withdrew their support upon the request of then candidate Donald J. Trump not to approve the legislation so as not to give President Joe Biden credit for reforming the American immigration system and keep the issue alive for the 2024 Presidential Election.

In the process, Abbott and Operation Lone Star seizure of the City of Eagle Pass public park-Shelby Park- caused the City of Eagle Pass to change Shelby Park as the venue for a multi-million dollar entertainment concert scheduled three days before the April 8th solar eclipse just a few weeks of the event, taking a huge loss of $2.3 million after being relocated to tribal reservation casino grounds.

Abbott’s announcement on November 19th that he has expanded the installation of floating water buoys in Eagle Pass, Texas signifies that he is continuing his Texas taxpayer-funded Operation Lone Star for billions of more dollars while other critical state needs and issues remain begging for attention and funding.

Abbott and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham have offered President-Elect Donald J. Trump a tract of 1,400 acres in Starr County for use by the federal government to construct and operate a mass deportation center of undocumented immigrants.

Eagle Pass’s likelihood to remain as the epic center of the American immigration debate is very likely under President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign proposal to enforce mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

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