Mexican officials filed a letter to the U.S. government Friday with complaints that the floating barriers in the Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas may violate international treaties, according to The Associated Press.
Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s Foreign Relations secretary, said the country will send an inspection team to the river to evaluate if the barriers violate two treaties, which require that the river be unimpeded.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began deploying large buoys in the middle of the river in early July, in an effort to prevent people from swimming across the river into the United States.
“We’re securing the border at the border. What these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border,” Abbott said last month.
“This strategy will proactively prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry by making it more difficult to cross the Rio Grande and reach the Texas side of the southern border,” Abbott’s office said in a statement.
Last week, a Texas kayaking company sued the state over the buoys, saying they illegally harm its business by preventing access to the river.
Much of the work has been focused on the stretch of river in Eagle Pass, Texas, an area with a high level of illegal crossings, according to the Texas Department of Safety. As part of the efforts, the U.S. has also flattened and placed barbed wire on some low-lying islands in the Eagle Pass section of the river, a move Mexico is also protesting.
The buoys create a connected string about 1,000 feet long, and have netting underneath them anchored to the riverbed. In theory, the barriers make it impossible to cross the river by swimming or using a boat.
Migrant advocates have also shared concerns about the buoys, saying they may cause additional drownings. Earlier this month, four people, including an infant, drowned in the Eagle Pass section of the Rio Grande River.