2 Bodies Recovered from Rio Grande; 1 Found Caught in Marine Barrier

People walk between razor wire and a string of buoys placed on the water along the Rio Grande border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 16, 2023. Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images

Two bodies were found in the Rio Grande on the Mexico side of the Texas border on Aug. 2.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) notified the Mexican consulate after receiving a report of “a possible drowning victim floating upstream from the marine barrier” on Wednesday afternoon. DPS then notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Mexican Consulate about the body.

“Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys,” DPS Director Steve McCraw said in a statement on Thursday. “There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”

Hours later, a second body was discovered about three miles upriver, away from the water buoys.

Coahuila state prosecutors told local media outlets that they are still working to identify the recovered bodies. The cause of death is unknown in both cases.

A 1,000-foot chain of floating barriers was installed as part of Operation Lone Star, an effort to block illegal border crossings at one of the hot spots near Eagle Pass, Texas.

“Texas deployed marine barriers in the Rio Grande to ramp up our efforts to deter illegal border crossings. Texas will take the Biden Administration all the way to the Supreme Court to defend our authority to respond to the border crisis,” Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on Twitter on July 25.

The Mexico Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the marine barrier is in violation of the country’s sovereignty.

“We reiterate the position of the Government of Mexico that the placement of barbed wire buoys by the Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty. We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants of these state policies will have, which run counter to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the United States,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to follow the case through the Mexican Consulate in Eagle Pass, and will maintain contact with the corresponding authorities in Mexico and the United States to obtain more information about what happened and to request the necessary investigations be carried out,” the statement continued.

DOJ Sues Texas Over Barrier

Mr. Abbott and the state of Texas have come under fire from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for placing the long chain of buoys in the river.

On July 24, the DOJ filed a lawsuit demanding that the state of Texas remove the floating barrier, claiming the move was illegal and without federal oversight (pdf). The DOJ argued that Texas bypassed the Rivers and Harbors Act by failing to first consult with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The complaint, filed in federal court in the Western District of Texas, is also seeking an injunction to block the state from placing additional marine barriers in the river.

In a letter to President Joe Biden on the day of the court filing, Mr. Abbott said that he had “asserted Texas’s ’sovereign interest in protecting [her] borders.'”

“The fact is, if you would just enforce the immigration laws Congress already has on the books, America would not be suffering from your record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” Mr. Abbott wrote (pdf). “While I share the humanitarian concerns noted in your lawyers’ letter, Mr. President, your finger points in the wrong direction. Neither of us wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River.”

Drownings occur regularly on the Rio Grande. Four people, including an infant, drowned in the river near Eagle Pass over the Fourth of July weekend while attempting to cross into the United States.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.