FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 9, 2026
Contact: Bekah Hinojosa, bekah@sotxejn.org or (956) 975-6634
South Texans Condemn DHS Sec. Noem’s Visit and Installation of Death-Trap Bouys in the Rio Grande
Brownsville, TX – On Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in Brownsville to spread the DHS’s racist propaganda and to begin installing floating barrier buoys in the Rio Grande. To date, five of these buoys have been installed in Brownsville. For months, border communities have denounced DHS’s plans to eventually install more than 500 miles of barrier bouys in the Rio Grande. Last month, community members documented masked contractors installing miles of marker buoys at the mouth of the Rio Grande where it meets Boca Chica Beach. Activists in the state of Texas have dubbed these barrier buoys as death-trap buoys because of the death that occurred near buoys in Eagle Pass, TX, years ago.
In response, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network issued the following statement:
“The South Texas Environmental Justice Network opposes the installation of these border buoys because they are a death-trap. We call upon all elected officials and regulators to demand the immediate removal of these buoys and oppose any future installation.
These death-trap buoys are designed to harm or kill human beings and are damaging the natural course of the river, which detrimentally affects the plant and animal species that depend on the river flowing naturally.
No human being is illegal, especially on lands that were stolen from the original Indigenous people, the Esto’k Gna. We are all community members who deserve to live our lives in dignity and community with one another. The violence imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, with these buoys, the border wall, and the propaganda to incite hate in our communities, is a product of white supremacy. Our communities deserve free and open access to the river; we deserve to live in a natural environment that is not made dangerous and unlivable by border militarization.”