Contractors are installing a 17-mile stretch of cylindrical buoys in the river to prevent illegal crossings from Mexico. These are the first of 536 miles of buoys that the federal government plans to stretch from the Gulf of Mexico deep into South Texas. The Department of Homeland Security has waived environmental laws and issued more than $1 billion in contracts to private companies to install them in continuous chains. Each industrial-style buoy is more than 12 feet long and four to five feet in diameter.
…
Experts consulted by Inside Climate News said they knew of no comparable undertaking on a dynamic river anywhere in the world. They warned that the buoys could speed up flood water in a region that already struggles with flooding. The buoys could also accumulate sediment and create new landforms in the river, provoking treaty disputes with neighboring Mexico. The buoys are planned through Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Webb, Maverick and Val Verde counties.
Also please note that 70% of people here illegally are due to visa overstaying from a tourist visa. They flew here.
Has anyone ever played this video for PEDOnald and his stupid base?
“It is inevitable that portions of the buoy system will break free and portions of the [border] wall will fail,” he wrote.
“Even very small changes can have very big consequences,” Tompkins told the Laredo committee.
-—
Shaking my head in advance.
America spending money on useless shit instead of spending money on its poor yet again
Fucking hell. Not discounting the deadly consequences to immigrants but gosh what fresh ecological hell will these exert on the already stressed ecosystem there.
Are people still crossing? Wtf would they do that?
This is all in preparation to prevent people from leaving the hellscape the US will become.
Um, but they will swim under them?
So… there have been some bouys like this and underneath they put nets and lined the shore with razor wire. Some of them have circular saw blades on them. I’m sure there’s other horrible things I could dredge up but you get the idea.
They know about the swimming and have accounted for it in the most horrific way possible.
Easy to get trapped or killed doing that sort of thing. They’re very big and it’s shallow water.
Also, security officers and vigilantes on the far shore have a history of just shooting you.
Actually, Texas slapped barbed wire on the underside of these when they put them up. I feel like the feds might do the same.
Ok, but how are these things changing that? Whether they swim under or cross the river without these things, people with guns are factors already there. If it’s too shallow to swim under you can easily climb over. The diameter is 1.5m and they are floating. They are less than 0.5m below the surface max, so if it’s really that shallow even a young kid can just stand there and climb over. If it’s 0.5m clearance under it it’s less than a 5sec swim underneath.
Go down and give it a shot. Let us know if it’s as easy as you thought
Oh hell no! Not a chance I’m going to that fascist country. I’m happy on the other side of the pond.
I hope you’re not saying that from England.
Indeed I’m not. But there are ~160 countries across 2 ponds. Not just England.
~160 countries across 2 ponds
“The Pond” is traditionally a term Brits use to describe the Atlantic with respect to the US.
Nobody in Japan is calling the Pacific Ocean a pond.
Why is it even necessary? Border crossings are at a historic low. If necessary, just put up concertina wire. These can be easily removed when no longer needed.
Trying to keep us in?
Why is it even necessary?
First off, it lines a few friendly contractors’ pockets to the tune of $3B.
Second off, you get to parade around at the border in front of some big metal tubes to announce “Mission Accomplished!” for your constituents.
They already got in trouble for this during this regimes first term
