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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott is planning to expand the use of buoy barriers across the Rio Grande to deter migrants from unlawfully entering the U.S.
The decision appears to come amid concerns of a surge in border crossings ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
Trump, who won the popular vote for the first time in three attempts, made border security and immigration a core component of his decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
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The former president has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in American history when he returns to the White House.
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Abbott's Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Newsweek: "Texas deployed floating marine barriers last summer to help deter and repel illegal river crossings—these have been so successful that not a single migrant has attempted to cross over them.
"Despite the Biden Administration fighting us every step of the way, courts have ruled that Texas has the right to deploy floating marine barriers, and Texas is installing even more of these barriers to stop illegal immigration into our state. Until the federal government steps up and does its job to secure the border, Texas will continue utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to the border crisis and protect Texans."
According to NewsNation, state crews have been surveying the area near Shelby Park along the river and plan to install barriers in high-traffic crossing zones as early as Wednesday.
Newsweek emailed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) outside of office hours for comment.
The DPS has been preparing for increased activity at the southern border in anticipation of increased attempts to enter the U.S. ahead of Trump's return to the White House.
DPS officers have been conducting "mass migration response" exercises along the border. One strategy involves positioning officers in their vehicles, with red and blue lights flashing, spaced every few hundred feet along the southern border.
Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the DPS-South Texas, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "Displaying a show of force will effectively deter the potential for a mass migration event."
"You can expect to see an increase of the buoys in the Rio Grande river," Abbott told NewsNation in August.
Buoy barriers are floating structures used to control or restrict movement across a body of water, such as a river, lake or coastal area.
They were initially deployed in 2023 as part of Operation Lone Star, a $11 billion program launched by Abbott in 2021 to address irregular migration from Mexico into Texas.
As part of it, thousands of National Guard soldiers have been assigned to patrol the border, install razor wire fencing and set up additional barriers to deter unauthorized crossings.
Operation Lone Star has spent $1 million on a 1,000-foot barrier on the Rio Grande near the Texas border town of Eagle Pass to discourage illegal border crossings.
Abbott has been in a long-running standoff with President Joe Biden's administration over humanitarian concerns about border enforcement policies in Texas. He has expressed concern at what he views as inadequate federal action to address the surge in migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In June 2023, the Biden administration sued the state of Texas over the buoys, arguing that the state had failed to obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct the barrier.
In July a federal appeals court ruled that floating barriers in the Rio Grande could remain but legal wrangling continues, with the Biden administration insisting that Texas' use of buoys has violated the federal Rivers and Harbors Act.
Update 11/20/24, 12:39 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Greg Abbott's press secretary.
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