Man Suing Texas Governor Says Rio Grande River ‘Has Been Terrorized’ by Border Policies

It has been one month since a small business owner in Texas launched a legal battle against Gov. Greg Abbott, whose border policies along the Rio Grande have impacted his business.

“I’m supposed to promote the beauty of the river,” Jesse Fuentes tells The Messenger during a Monday evening vigil for migrants who have died crossing the river in Eagle Pass, Texas.

"Does that look beautiful to you over there?" he asks, motioning towards the water that represents the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. "Layer upon layer of concertina, shipping cart containers that are 14 feet high, steel fences and then another fence over there, buoys in the water, all kinds of obstacles that shouldn’t be there."

Abbott announced plans earlier this summer to deploy an inflatable wall of buoys along Eagle Pass to deter migrants from crossing the river from Mexico into the U.S.

The buoys are also making things difficult for Fuentes, who owns Epi’s Canoe and Kayak Team, a business he started in 2016 for people interested in learning the basics of canoeing and kayaking, according to his site. For a small fee, he takes customers rowing on the Rio Grande.

Fuentes's lawsuit, which asks for both a temporary and permanent injunction on the buoys, argues that Abbott's plan is both harmful to his business and also unconstitutional.

"[Abbott cannot] create his own border patrol agency to regulate the border and prevent immigrants from entering Texas,” the lawsuit states, adding that the plan “represents a hateful policy that intends to create the impression that Mexicans, immigrants and Mexican Americans … are dangerous.”

Abbott responded after the lawsuit was filed, vowing to fight it and declaring, "Texas has a constitutional right to secure our border."

In 2021, Texas launched Operation Lone Star, which Abbott says is intended to counter immigration, illegal drug trade and human trafficking, according to its site.

Since the launch, the state has spent millions to block migrants from entering the country.

Last month, the governor sent a letter to President Joe Biden whose Dept. of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state and its practices.

"If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws," reads the letter. "By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River. You can also help me save Texans, and indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking.”

“To end the risk that migrants will be harmed crossing the border illegally, you must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry. In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Texas will see you in court, Mr. President."

The Messenger's attempt to reach the Governor's office for comment was unsuccessful.

Fuentes said he was motivated to sue the Governor when he paddled along the river and noticed one of its islands had been removed during the deployment of the water barrier.

“I’d been tolerant just like everybody else for the last two years, but then, they bulldozed that island. They altered the flow of the river,” Fuentes says. “They steamrolled it down and that’s when I said, ‘That’s enough!'"

He called the Rio Grande International Study Center at Laredo College, which helped him file a civil suit in Travis County demanding the state remove the buoys, which is causing his business imminent and irreparable harm.

He has created a GoFundMe page to help with his legal fees so he can continue fighting to protect the river, he says.

“Our river is crying. It is stressed. It’s been beaten. It’s been terrorized,” he says. “All that ecosystem, all that flora, all that fauna, it’s gone.”

He adds, “That river connects all of us — our culture, our history, our story, the people that we are, here on the border.”