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.
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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.
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.
“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.
I’m also not from Japan, and again isn’t the only country across that pond. Brittain is also bigger than England.