Body found along Texas floating buoys, Mexican officials say

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported a body had been found along the floating buoys that were recently installed by the state of Texas in the Rio Grande. The department said authorities were trying to recover the body, whose nationality and cause of death was not known as of Thursday morning, Aug. 3.

“We will continue to promptly follow up on the case through the Mexican Consulate in Eagle Pass, maintaining contact with the corresponding authorities in Mexico and the United States to obtain more information about what happened and request that the necessary investigations be carried out,” the ministry said in a Wednesday, Aug. 2 statement.

The discovery of the body comes just weeks after the Texas officials installed the floating buoys. Roughly the length of three soccer fields, the buoys are designed to make it more difficult for migrants to climb over or swim under the barrier. The Mexican government stated its opposition to the buoys Wednesday.

“We reiterate the position of the Government of Mexico that the placement of barbed wire buoys by the Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty,” the ministry said. “We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal security of migrants that these state policies will have, which go in the opposite direction to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the United States.”

The Biden administration appears to agree. The Justice Department sued Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, asking a court to force Texas to remove the buoys due to humanitarian and environmental concerns.

Buoys or not, the Rio Grande has proven to be treacherous for migrants trying to cross it. Over the Fourth of July weekend, before the buoys were installed, four people drowned in the river near Eagle Pass.