Gov. Abbott Refuses Federal Request Over Island Used by Mexico Cartels

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference about the panhandle wildfires, in Borger, Texas, on March 1, 2024. AP Photo

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that he will not comply with a request from a federal agency to restore Fronton Island to “pre-construction conditions,” after the Lone Star State took measures to secure the island from cartels.

The International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) had asked for “the installed obstructions such as the concertina wire fence” to be removed to “reestablish the previous ability for water flow into the existing channel north of the island.”

The island, located in the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico, has served as a hotspot for human traffickers and criminal cartels, according to a 2023 statement from the Texas General Land Office (GLO).

Abbott sent the Sept. 10 letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris refusing to comply, saying he would not “cede state land to transnational criminal cartels smuggling people, weapons, and drugs.”

Abbott said cartels had for years been running rampant in the island’s thick vegetation and structures, which they used “to stage illegal entries, surveil state and federal law enforcement, stash weapons, plant explosives, evade apprehension, and engage in open warfare against rival cartels and against state and federal officers.”

Abbott had determined that Texas “could not ignore an ongoing invasion of its sovereign territory,” and ordered the Texas Military Department onto Fronton Island to secure it against the cartels.

The cartel forces continued to operate in the dense overgrowth, Abbott said, and so he ordered the Texas Military Department to clear the dense vegetation and structures seemingly built by the cartels and to deploy razor-wire fencing as a deterrent against entry “to gain operational control” of the island, according to the letter.

These efforts made it “virtually impossible for cartel members to use the space to evade law enforcement” as they had for decades, according to Abbott.

In April 2024, the International Boundary and Water Commission ordered the GLO to return Fronton Island to its prior condition, suggesting that the alterations could alter the flow of the Rio Grande, in violation of a 1970 Treaty.

That treaty resolved pending boundary differences between Mexico and the United States and maintained the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the international boundary between the two nations.

Bridges Versus Dirt Crossings

According to a separate letter sent to the GLO by USIBWC in April 2023, any IBWC-approved construction along the Rio Grande floodplain “must not obstruct normal river flows or flood flows that would cause additional areas to flood or deflect flows that could change the alignment of the international boundary and could cause the loss of territory in either country.”

The commission stated that “constructed land bridges and the installed concertina fence” block “the portion of flow that would normally occur” in the small river channel along its northern bank during normal flood events, which could “potentially cause deflection of the river flow towards Mexico.”

In response, Abbott said in his Sept. 10 letter: “Your Administration’s letter betrays a basic misunderstanding of facts on the ground, and its claims are unsupported by either science or common sense. For one thing, any so-called ‘bridges’ were just dirt crossings, two of which TMD has already cleared away, and a third of which had a culvert placed beneath it to allow water to flow freely.

“Despite speculating (without explanation) that the razor wire could deflect water, USIBWC’s letter nowhere acknowledges how that barrier has already deterred repeated illegal foot traffic, drug and human smuggling, and other transnational criminal activity, such as the detonation of explosives, that could more likely impact water flows.”

USIBWC also suggested that Texas officials trespassed on federal land in the process of facilitating cleanup and security efforts on the island, according to Abbott’s letter.

Abbott said that Fronton Island is state-owned land and Texas has the constitutional sovereign authority to “defend its property and its people in the federal government’s deliberate absence.”

“Far from engaging in construction activities on Fronton Island, [Texas has] cleared existing obstructions—including many placed by the criminal cartels operating there with impunity,” he said.

“At the very least, Texas’s efforts on Fronton Island pose less of a threat to river flows than the cartels’ previous activities.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission told the Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it stands by its assertion that Fronton Island is federal property and that Texas has undertaken activities without its permission.

“Our responsibility under the 1970 Treaty with Mexico is to monitor construction along the Rio Grande floodplain to ensure the safety of communities, flow of the river, and maintenance of the boundary with Mexico,” the spokesperson said. “We again request Texas meet with us to discuss any projects they plan on land under our jurisdiction.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.