HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — The Department of Homeland Security is putting 17 miles of river water barrier in the Rio Grande in Cameron County in deep South Texas, Border Report has learned.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signed a waiver to expedite construction, the agency said in a press release Thursday. This is the sixth waiver signed by Noem for border barrier construction projects along the Southwest border.
The river structure is to be built south of Brownsville, a bustling border town across from Matamoros, Mexico, according to a memo obtained by Border Report.
The distance from Brownsville to the Gulf of America is approximately that distance. The Gulf meets the river near SpaceX’s launch facility.
A 17 miles, the massive new river structure will be far longer than the 1,000-foot-long river buoy structure that the State of Texas built as part of Operation Lone Star in Eagle Pass.
Texas’ controversial buoy structure built in July 2023 cost the state $1 million.
Based on those costs, this new structure — which is expected to also include river buoys — could cost $90 million.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas to remove the buoys, claiming the buoys violate the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and are a safety hazard. They also argue the barrier was installed without proper authorization from the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC).
The structure was moved closer to the U.S. side of the river after complaints and has often been seen by Border Report mired in shallow mud.
It also has been criticized for massive metal spikes in between the giant orange buoys, which migrant advocates say can hurt people on the river. And environmentalists say it is altering the natural flow of water and causing destruction to the international waterway.
DHS said in a press release that the structure is necessary for Customs and Border Protection officers and Border Patrol agents:
”In a continuing effort to gain and maintain operational control of the Southern border, and in support of the President’s Executive Orders, CBP continues to look for innovative ways to achieve this mission. A capability gap has been identified in waterways along the Southwest border where drug smuggling, human trafficking and other dangerous and illegal activity occurs. In response to this gap, CBP has identified the requirement for the construction of waterborne barriers to support the border security mission in waterways. In addition, waterborne barriers are intended to create a safer border environment for patrolling agents, as well as deter illegal aliens from attempting to illegally cross the border through dangerous waterways,” the press release says.
DHS plans to fund the RGV Waterborne Barrier Project by using leftover border security funds from Fiscal Year 2021.
An announcement by DHS was put in the Federal Register on Thursday and indicates the start will be in Brownsville but does not say more.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, sits on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee and he says there was money that had been appropriated by Congress to build border wall in the Fiscal Year 2021 that the Biden administration did not use when it took over from the first Trump administration.
Now President Donald Trump apparently plans to use this money and he won’t need to wait for approval for the Fiscal Year 2026 “Big Beautiful Bill: currently pending in the House of Representatives in order to do it, Cuellar says.
”When you talk about constructing a fence it could be $30 million per mile this water structure is going to be expensive,” Cuellar told Border Report.
Cuellar said he had advocated for a water buoy structure years ago, during the first Trump administration, when DHS had been planning to put up a border wall in his hometown of Laredo.
When asked about this new structure he said: “I always want to see what they’re going to do because, as I mentioned, I was advocating for this instead of a border wall years ago but it was one of those that you have to have the International Boundary and Water Commission (sign off) because they’re the ones that deal with the boundaries of Mexico, with the flow of water. They will have a say-so and if they have the International Boundary and Water Commission involved then I think that should soften some of the concerns that we have.”
Noem has signed environmental waivers to expedite construction, and according to the memo, she wants a contract for the structure to be bid and started by the end of Fiscal Year 2025, which is the end of September.
”That’s in about a minute,” Cuellar said.
Last week, the U.S. Air Force announced that 250 miles of the Rio Grande and federal lands previously managed by the IBWC in Cameron and Hidalgo counties had been transferred to the Department of Defense and now are an extended military zone under Joint Base San Antonio.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected]
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