Texas will soon have a massive floating border in the middle of the Rio Grande, according to Governor Greg Abbott.
Abbott announced the "breaking news" at his Thursday press conference, saying that the state will deploy a 1,000-foot inflatable border in Eagle Pass, Texas. The Rio Grande, which separates the U.S. and Mexico, is the fourth-longest river in North America.
"I mentioned earlier that the Texas Legislature provided the state about $1 million to secure the border," the Republican governor said at the Capitol. He then pointed to draft images showing a "new, water-based barrier of buoys" that would be placed in the river to "secure the border at the border."
The plan is the latest immigration move from Abbott's administration in response to the record-breaking number of migrants who have crossed the southern border since President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Throughout his presidency, Biden has been sharply criticized by Republicans and officials in border towns for rolling back Trump-era policies that allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to send migrants back to Mexico.
"Washington, D.C., has failed to do [their] job to secure the border," Abbott said on Thursday. "As a result, Texas has had to take unprecedented steps and [respond] to the crisis caused by the [Biden] administration on the border."
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.
Abbott said the floating border, which will be deployed "immediately," will allow the state to prevent migrants from even getting to the border. State officials estimated that the initiative will cost "less than a million dollars."
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said that the buoys will be a "protective way" for the state to "prevent people from drowning" and that CBP had already seen and tested the water plan.
"Nobody needs to be coming between the ports of entry. It's dangerous," McCraw said. "The buoy is on the water itself. They can be quickly deployed, and they can be moved."
The floating border was proposed under Senate Bill 602, which will also give CBP the authority to "arrest people for crimes under Texas law," according to Abbott. The law will go into effect on September 1.
On Thursday, the governor signed six border-related bills sent to him by the Legislature in the session that ended on Memorial Day. Among them was one that designates drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," an expansion of Abbott's executive order.
