After constructing it on Mexican territory, Gov. Abbott and Texas were forced to relocate the contentious floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande River

The State of Texas, according to the direction of Governor Greg Abbott, built the disputable floating marine buoy barrier in the Rio Grande River. However, an investigation done by the joint United States International Boundary and Water Commission and the Mexican International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) in late July 2023 revealed that 80% of the 995-foot-long building in Eagle Pass, Texas, is genuinely built on the Mexican side of the river.

The buoys cost Texas taxpayers at least $1 million, plus a sizeable sum for shipping, construction, and adjustment on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.

At the conference on August 10, 2023, in Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Alicia Barcena of Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations requested that Governor Abbott and the legislature of Texas eliminate the floating buoy barrier across the Rio Grande and Mexican territory.