Mexico files complaint with U.S. over floating Rio Grande border wall

Mexican authorities send a diplomatic letter to the U.S. government regarding a floating border wall that is being installed in Texas, which they claim violates boundaries and water treaties. 

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Barcena said an inspection team will be sent to the Rio Grande to examine whether the barrier crosses into Mexico’s side of the border. 

"We are sending a mission, a territorial inspection," Barcena added, "to see where the buoys are located... to carry out this topographical survey to verify that they do not cross into Mexican territory."

If the floating barrier is found to impede the flow of water, it would violate the 1944 and 1970 treaties designating the use of waters from the Colorado, Tijuana, and Rio Grande rivers. 

Last week, Texas began installing the first 1,000 feet of the new barrier near the city of Eagle Pass, across from the Mexican town of Piedras Negras, to prevent undocumented migrants from attempting to swim across the river and cross the border.

The barrier is made up of four-foot-wide buoys that are equipped with weights and netting anchored to the river bed and are designed to rotate if someone attempts to climb over them. 

Migrant advocates and environmental advocates have raised concerns about the impact that a barrier could have in the long term. 

Last week, the owner of a kayak company operating tours in the Rio Grande sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, claiming that the barrier would prevent him from carrying out kayak tours in the river and would cause “imminent and irreparable harm” to his company.