The news lately is reporting on a floating barrier erected in the Rio Grande by the state of Texas, intended to deter undocumented immigrants from crossing in the shallow part of the river. Discussions of whether this is humane or legal should go in a different forum; for now, I’m just interested in understanding how this barrier physically stops or mentally deters people from crossing the river.
From the footage I’ve seen, the barrier is made as a chain of orange spheres, with each sphere being maybe 1 meter in diameter (photo in this article with adult human for scale).
There don’t appear to be any deliberately injurious features on any individual buoy. This article shows some hoop clamps that appear to be used for retention; they might scratch you up a bit, but they’re not designed to catch and rend flesh like concertina wire.
The water in the area where the buoy chain is deployed is shallow, which is the whole reason it’s deployed there: that’s where people tend to cross. But what stops/deters a person from just crawling over those orange buoys?
They spin so if you climb on them you get dumped back in the water. They extend underwater which is an obstacle for poor swimmers. People try to cross, get exhausted at the barrier, and drown.
Yeah, I was just about to post what Telemark said.
It’s hard to tell from the images, but I’ll guess that the river’s depth is at least three feet out in the middle, between the banks, and most of the photos in which people are seen (and the water appears to be about a foot deep) were taken closer to the banks, during the deployment of the barrier.
I imagine the buoys rotate nearly effortlessly in the water, which would be a difficult obstacle to overcome, even in just three feet of water. The hoop clamps might snag clothing and drag people down into the water.
I take a large drywall anchor with a rope attached and poke it into the buoy. I tie a large rock to the rope and toss it into the river. As I try to climb onto the buoy, it will rotate until the rope tightens, and my family and I can climb over the buoy. Surely someone had tried this.
I’m sure the coyotes will figure something out. Where there’s a will, there is always a way. A tall concrete wall with barbed wire, minefields, and machine gun towers didn’t stop people from crossing a border, so this is probably futile, even if it increases the human cost.
That’s what I have been wondering about how this contraption will work - unless it runs the length of the river from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico, people will simply go to wherever it ends and attempt to cross there, which is likely more dangerous (deeper, swifter current, etc.). I guess those that think this is a good solution see that last part as a feature - thinking a more dangerous crossing will deter people. It wont, and it will end up killing people as a result.
Is it as short as we’ve seen in photos or are there more buoys at other points along the river? Maybe they’re just testing the device and the proverbial waters (criticism).
AIUI, the buoy barrier is deployed along a stretch of the river that is shallow enough for people to walk across, making it an attractive crossing point. If you go to either end of the barrier, the river is considerably deeper. I’d bet most of the people trying to cross the river haven’t had any swimming lessons, so water that’s over your head is, for them, a virtually impassable barrier.
So, Johnny Weismuller (sp) swims across across with a line, ties it off, and folks like me pull themselves across. Maybe I should be in the coyote business. Five bucks, bring your own extra rope, we don’t want anyone to get hurt.
That’s a distinct possibility, although I think they’d call it effectiveness.
I was going to agree, pointing out that nearby town Eagle Pass is pretty far inland. But there’s a big reservoir not far away, and (my point here) if they live in the area, they’ve probably swum many times in the Rio Grande, unless it’s largely prohibitted (I don’t know).
I think you’re right. Immigration can cause problems, although a lot of people who complain about it probably fail to take that into account. Crossing a river is one thing, and emigrating from North Africa to Europe by sea is another. Those poor people go through hell.
It’s not rocket science - minimum hourly wage in North America is probably a week or two’s wages back home. That is an incentive, even if the crops don’t fail.
It seems to me the simple solution is teamwork - first person boosts the other over so they fall on the other side, then that one uses a short piece of rope, or even their shirt, tossing one end over the buoy and hauling the other person over.
(I vaguely recall something about them having a chain fence underneath to make swimming underneath harder…?)
I’m pretty sure I have heard or read that razor wire is involved. That crap is scary.
I drive past the men’s prison on my way to my dog’s daycare, and they have a chain-link fence that looks to be about 15ft, with looped razor wire on top. That’s all.
When I was in the army, places they didn’t patrol with soldiers had 8ft chain-link fences topped with razor wire, and cameras maybe every 100 yards. They were usually away from roads and in rough terrain-- they were for keeping people out, not in.
That crap is no joke, and scary just to look at. I have climbed over fences with barbed wire and been fine, but I keep the hell away from looped razor wire.
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