Earlier examined by the federal government, “chainsaw gadgets” on Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s floating buoy barrier, according to former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, were designed to avoid growing.
Scott, who worked under both Presidents Trump and Biden for a brief period, said Border Patrol evaluated several buoy barriers and discovered that what looks to be swords are actually “passive radial discs” that make anyone trying to cross them “painful” without getting hurt.
Democratic Texas Representative Joaquin Castro called the discs “chainsaw devices” employed in Texas’ “barbaric” action in the clip he tweeted from the barricades at Eagle Pass on Tuesday.
When Scott was Chief, the USBP evaluated a variety of buoy obstacle features, including one that some have referred to as a “saw blade.” It’s referred to as an inactive radial disc. It is an anti-climb barrier that the USBP tested in 2020 and found to be inactive, to make climbers uneasy, but not tear skin or hurt a person, according to Scott, who spoke to the DCNF.