Critics slam Texas anti-refugee measure of buoy barriers as 'chilling'
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Texas governor Greg Abbot announces a major buoys installation project at the Rio Grande River to prevent refugees from crossing into US territories.
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Refugees trying to cross the Rio Grande River (AP)
The state of Texas is set to introduce a barrier of buoys, cutting off entry through a section of the Rio Grande River where refugees swim across the dangerous waterway to cross over into the US, the governor of Texas Greg Abbott announced.
Abbott revealed that a "new, water-based barrier of buoys" will be installed along the river, as he displayed a long line of large red buoys floating in the middle of the river.
The governor said the installation process will commence "pretty much immediately." Abbott has been leading a strong campaign against immigration into the US evident in the $5.1 billion pledged by the state to fight off immigrants.
Republican governors from 14 states have previously stated that they are ready to mobilize thousands of national guard troops and other personnel to the Texas-Mexico border. Advocates have raised their voices against such a commitment which they say would "put migrants' lives at risk."
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who prioritized anti-immigration policies in his early presidential campaign, has assigned the largest number of personnel, including 1,100 national guard officers, compared to any other state.
The Texas state official believes that the buoys will prevent refugees from even getting to the border.
"We can put mile after mile after mile of these buoys" in different areas, Abbott boasted. The buoys will range from 4 to 6 feet and will have netting underneath them that prevents refugees from swimming through them.
The Texas state director of the League of United Latin Americans Citizens, Rodolfo Rosales, slammed the plan, as he said to CBS News, "We view it as a chilling reminder of the extreme measures used throughout history by elected leaders against those they do not regard as human beings, seeking only to exterminate them, regardless of the means employed."
"It is with profound horror and shame that we bear witness to the consideration of these measures, which are evidently intended as political theater but will undoubtedly result in the loss of innocent lives among the refugees seeking asylum in the United States," he added.
The state will initially deploy buoys at the Eagle Pass, an already dangerous area in the Rio Grande where 30 bodies a month were being recovered from the river according to the local fire chief.
"We don’t want anybody to get hurt, in fact, we want to prevent people from getting hurt, prevent people from drowning," the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, claimed at the press conference on Thursday.
