The leafy trees on Magali and Hugo Urbina\u2019s 350-acre orchard next to the Rio Grande river in Eagle Pass, Texas, should be bursting with pecans this time of year. Instead, most are barren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Urbinas blame the clouds of dust kicked up by Texas officials in trucks and ATVs after the state government in recent months put fencing and roads along the riverbanks in a contentious effort to deter migration from Mexico, just across the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People walk near buoys placed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande to stop crossings from the Mexican side.
\u2018Like traps meant for animals\u2019: death no deterrent at the Rio Grande river barrier
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Republican Governor Greg Abbott\u2019s latest salvo has extended to a barrier of giant orange buoys in the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Urbinas suspect the flurry of activity interfered with pollination on their orchard, Heavenly Farms, where the Texas state tree has flourished for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re choking,\u201d Magali said. The sense of an invasion on their property has left the couple, Texas natives of Mexican descent who voted for Abbott, feeling blindsided by what they see as his agenda to publicize a crackdown on the border in the face of what the governor argues is a soft approach by Joe Biden, the US president and a Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about money and votes, nothing else,\u201d Hugo added. \u201cWe\u2019re just collateral damage and they don\u2019t care.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also risks further environmental damage to the delicate borderlands, where scientists say deserts, hills and wetlands along the nearly 2,000-mile frontier have been plagued by walls, shipping containers, helicopters and stadium lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Migrants for years have forged the river from Mexico to Eagle Pass, part of increasingly higher numbers of people crossing illegally in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abbott in 2021 launched a program he dubbed \u201cOperation Lone Star\u201d aimed at curbing illegal migration, including a campaign to bus migrants to Democratic-led cities further north and the deployment of thousands of national guard troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet migrants continue to enter Texas in large numbers. Over four days in late July, Reuters observed dozens of people cross daily near the Urbinas\u2019 farm, including a group of some 50 people, only to be confronted with razor wire and Texas officials on the steep riverbank \u2013 property the Urbinas say is theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magali Urbina stands next to a state-built fence and razor wire on her property along the Rio Grande.
Magali Urbina stands next to a state-built fence and razor wire on her property along the Rio Grande. Photograph: Adrees Latif\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one instance, a Venezuelan woman breastfed her 10-month baby while wading through the river, searching for a spot where she could get past the razor wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abbott\u2019s office referred Reuters to previous statements from the governor. He has accused Biden of failing to enforce migration laws and said he has the authority to \u201cdefend\u201d Texas\u2019 border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Urbinas\u2019 frustration has put them in an unlikely alliance with environmental advocates who are concerned Abbott\u2019s measures will harm wildlife along the Rio Grande.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is about big government trying to come in and steam-rolling a small town,\u201d said Martin Castro, the watershed science director at the Rio Grande International Study Center. \u201cThey didn\u2019t think anyone was going to stand up and speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tasked with securing the border. States are legally restricted in what they can do without coordinating with the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Department of Justice has sued Texas over the buoys, arguing Texas installed them without proper federal approvals and studies of their impact on public safety and the environment. Mexico\u2019s government says the buoys violate a water treaty and put migrants\u2019 lives at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Eagle Pass, sediment falling into the river from the installation of fences and buoys is already altering the water\u2019s flow, according to environmentalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That could damage habitats for local wildlife, including the endangered Texas hornshell mussel and the least tern, a small bird that nests along rivers, and affect the Monarch butterfly that migrates through the area.
Since 2005, the Department of Homeland Security, CBP\u2019s parent agency, has been able to waive environmental laws to build border infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe borderlands are already suffering death by a thousand cuts,\u201d said Laiken Jordahl, an advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Urbinas, who purchased the orchard in 2021 as a transition into retirement, say they may lose the harvest for another couple of years if they are forced to cut back the branches to keep the trees healthy. This year alone, they expect to lose just under $760,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the pecan farm, Magali was an elementary school teacher, and Hugo worked in the oil industry. Neither expected their farm to become a flashpoint in the border debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe we were put here so everybody could see exactly what is happening,\u201d Magali said. \u201cPoliticians fight and don\u2019t accomplish anything, and the ones that pay are innocent human beings.\u201d
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