Noem fast-tracks construction for water barriers in Texas along Rio Grande to keep migrants from crossing into US
Noem signed a waiver bypassing environmental laws so about 17 miles of 'waterborne barrier' technology could be built in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday.
'A capability gap has been identified in waterways along the Southwest border where drug smuggling, human trafficking and other dangerous and illegal activity occurs,' the department said in a statement.
The project, which will be paid for with previously allocated funds, marks the sixth time Noem has used such a waiver.
It revives a strategy that was a source of controversy under the previous administration, when the Biden administration sued the state of Texas for putting a 1,000 feet of razor-tipped barriers in the Rio Grande, in a case that was ultimately unsuccessful on appeal.
Texas's much smaller floating barrier effort cost about $1 million, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, warned Border Report that the latest DHS version of a river barrier could cost vastly more.
'When you talk about constructing a fence it could be $30 million per mile. This water structure is going to be expensive,' he said.
Residents of the low-income, largely Hispanic region are divided over such border projects.
The Rio Grande Valley voted for Trump in 2024, but some argue the border build-up in the area has drained needed resources and led to profiling against Latinos.
'This is like a rights-free area,' Michelle Serrano, of the local advocacy group Voces Unidas RGV, told The Independent last year. 'We're talking about an area where they freely racially profile us. It feels like a separate but equal situation.'
In addition to expanding border construction, the second Trump administration has also transferred nearly 400 miles of border land to military control, as a means of expanding the use of troops in direct immigration enforcement, while deploying Marines and National Guard troops internally in response to anti-immigration raid protests in Los Angeles.
Prior to Trump returning to office, states like Texas embarked on their own border infrastructure sprees, erecting razor barriers, walls, and floating buoys.
As part of the Trump administration's Big, Beautiful Bill spending package, the federal government will spend over $13 billion reimbursing states like Texas for their efforts.
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