Texas installs third wire barrier on Rio Grande

The Texas government has placed a third razor wire barrier on the Rio Grande, on the border with Mexico, despite criticism from the Mexican government and the risks for migrants.

Activists said that these measures by the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, are “inhumane” and attack the most vulnerable, such as children, in addition to harming those who dare to cross the fence and forcing others to seek more dangerous paths where they are at the mercy of organized crime.

Pastor Francisco González, director of the Somos Uno por Juárez Shelter Network, told EFE that “it is very regrettable” that the United States allows these barriers that have injured hundreds of migrants and caused the death of several.

Clashes between Mexico and Texas have been escalating since Governor Abbott installed razor wire and a buoy fence on the Rio Grande in July 2023, something that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called “inhumane” and attributed to the 2024 US presidential election.

Texas defied orders from the U.S. government and the Supreme Court, as well as diplomatic demands from Mexico, to remove the fence, which has contributed to the deaths of migrants, as occurred on January 14 with a Mexican woman and her two children who drowned in Piedras Negras, Coahuila.

With information from EFE

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