2023-08-28 13:40:38
UNITED STATES
Despite buoys and barbed wire, migrants flock to Texas
The governor of the American state has tried to install obstacles on the Rio Grande, on the border with Mexico, but the refugees in search of a better life manage to sneak in.
PostedAugust 28, 2023, 3:40 PM
Migrants cover the barbed wire barrier with their clothes to cross to the other side.
Their two children on their shoulders, Wilfredo Riera and Nataly Barrionuevo jump into the Rio Grande from the Mexican side. Waist deep in water, they avoid the buoys placed by Texas to block their passage and head for the United States.
“They told us regarding the buoys, but told us that they did not mark the whole territory, that there was a way to get there,” says Wilfredo Riera, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who came from Ecuador with his wife Nataly Barrionuevo, 39, and their children, Yeiden, 2, and Nicolás, 7.
In July, the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, had this floating barrier installed on the river, the natural border between the United States and Mexico, to repel migrants. The buoys are designed to spin if grabbed and have serrated metal discs. At the beginning of August, a lifeless body was found there.
A breach in the barbed wire
Wilfredo Riera, Nataly Barrionuevo and their children left Ecuador a month and a half ago in search of work and a better life. They crossed the Darien jungle, from Colombia to Panama. With a dozen other migrants, the family was able to cross the river, far from the buoys. It took regarding ten minutes to go from one bank to the other, from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to Eagle Pass, United States. All then came up once morest an interminable barrier of barbed wire, before finally finding a breach and rushing through it.
At 2 p.m., the temperature felt exceeded 40°C. A warm wind is blowing, and the only sound is that of lizards hiding in the vegetation. In front of them, another fence, regarding three meters high with, once more, barbed wire. They cover them with their clothes to pass to the other side. Nataly climbs it, and waits for her husband to catch up with her with their children. Some come out with a hole in their pants, but they’re in the United States.
In a detention center
A Border Police van arrives, kicking up dust. In Spanish, an agent asks them for their identity papers. They search the men and place everyone in a vehicle, heading for a detention center.
If they are allowed to apply for asylum, they will be able to stay temporarily in the United States, until a judge rules. Otherwise, they will be expelled. “We want to work, to give them a future,” Nataly says, pointing to her children, before her voice breaks.
Washington protests, the governor of Texas resists
The buoys are the subject of a standoff between Texas and the United States federal government. The Department of Justice considers them a humanitarian and diplomatic issue because they violate border treaties with Mexico, and has sued Texas to remove them. The case is now being considered by a Federal Court.
The Texas authorities already had to move the buoys last week because they were encroaching on the Mexican side. “We are fully authorized by the Constitution of the United States to do exactly what we do”, namely “secure the border”, defended Governor Greg Abbott.
The buoys are designed to spin if grabbed and have serrated metal discs.
“The governor of Texas has set up a cute little scene to make it look like a war zone,” laments Jessie Fuentes, 62, owner of a kayak tour business. He had to close up shop, “because no one wants to go on the river in these conditions”. Robie Flores, 36, was born and raised in Eagle Pass. She remembers her childhood on the banks of the Rio Grande. People were picnicking, wading in the water, boating. It was even common to greet the neighbors of Piedras Negras.
But, since then, Texas has erected a barrier of containers that obscures the view, explains this videographer, co-founder of the border coalition of Eagle Pass. Then came the barbed wire and, finally, the buoys. “It’s really sad to see. Migrants gathered like cattle, treated like less than nothing, ”she denounces. “That’s not how our community works. We are a border community.”
(AFP)
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