According to many Twitter users, the state of Texas has installed a floating anti-migrant barrier equipped with circular saws on the Rio Grande River. This statement is (almost) true.
Posted on 08/10/2023 09:05
Reading time : 2 min.
In recent days, a video has been circulating on Twitter, in which we see large orange buoys, like huge balloons, attached to each other to form a floating barrier and between each of these buoys is a circular metal blade.
American Internet users speak of “circular saws”, and explain that the device was installed on the Rio Grande River by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to injure migrants who would try to cross.
This statement is true. However, these are not real circular saws since they would need a motor to power them, but disc-shaped blades cut in sawtooth: a kind of floating barbed wire. This video shared by Internet users was posted on Twitter by an American parliamentarian: Democrat Sylvia Garcia, elected from Texas. Earlier this week, she traveled to the border with Mexico to document the new anti-immigration measures taken by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
The floating barrier was installed last month not far from Eagle Pass, a town in Texas located on the left bank of the Rio Grande River, which serves as the border between Mexico and the United States. The installation of this barrier is part of a vast operation to fight against illegal immigration launched in March 2021 and called “Lone star” (lone star, the nickname of the State of Texas). In a press release published last week on its website, Texas is pleased to have arrested more than 400,000 illegal migrants in two years as part of this operation.
Since the installation of this new floating barrier, two bodies have been found nearby, including that of a 20-year-old young man from Honduras, identified by his mother. In mid-July, the US Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against the State of Texas, in an attempt to force it to remove this barrier. But Gov. Greg Abbott did not fold. In a letter sent to US President Joe Biden and posted on Twitter, he said he wanted to protect the “sovereign interests” of Texas and gave the president an appointment in court.
