In what could be another escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, federal officials are considering deploying controversial buoy barriers on three rivers and canals along the U.S.-Mexico border in California and Arizona.
The barriers appear to be modeled after the chains of giant orange buoys deployed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott along the Rio Grande River since 2023. Those barriers included serrated saw blades and submerged mesh nets to prevent people from swimming underneath. Mexican officials say they caused two people to drown that same year.
Emails obtained by KPBS show federal officials approached an Imperial County water agency in February to seek feedback on the idea of installing a similar set of buoys along the Colorado River and two canals, the All-American and the Alamo. The emails said the proposal was being led by the U.S. Border Patrol.
News of the discussions is raising alarms among California lawmakers. In an interview Monday, U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, said the buoy barriers were “very dangerous.”
“I think it would be inhumane,” said Ruiz, whose district includes Imperial County. “It goes contrary to our American values.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not respond to a request for comment. In a memo attached to the February emails, Border Patrol officials argued that the buoys would prevent drownings by deterring people from crossing. They said the barriers would “redirect traffic to safer locations in order to save lives.”
The emails were sent by Cynthia Flores, a contract manager with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that manages dams and canals throughout the Western U.S.
In an initial email dated Feb. 10, Flores said the “preliminary outreach” about the proposal had come from Border Patrol’s regional office in Yuma, Arizona and was under review by Interior Department staff. In a second email two weeks later, Flores said Border Patrol had put the barriers on hold “due to other pressing projects.”
Flores did not respond to a request for comment by KPBS’ deadline.
Texas officials began deploying the buoy barriers in 2023 as part of an aggressive effort to stop people from crossing the Rio Grande and seeking asylum in the United States. They also installed razor wire and stationed National Guard troops along the river.
The barriers drew searing criticism from immigrant rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) called them “barbaric” during a 2023 visit to the Rio Grande.
“It’s incredibly dangerous,” Castro said in a video posted to Twitter.
The barriers also faced swift legal challenges. A month after they were deployed, the Biden administration sued Texas in federal court, arguing the barriers were a safety hazard and were installed without the necessary approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Mexican government filed a diplomatic complaint over the barriers too, arguing they violated international water treaties.
Now though, federal agencies under the Trump administration appear to be seeking greater control over the buoy barriers. In February, Texas officials announced that they would be handing over control of their buoys to the federal government.
The discussions about expanding the buoy barriers to California also come as President Donald Trump expands a sweeping effort to limit who can enter the country, which has also included invoking emergency powers reserved for wartime and illegally deporting a Maryland father to El Salvador.
It’s unclear if the proposed barriers would be exactly the same as the ones used in Texas.
Flores’ emails included a Border Patrol planning memo for the installation of a set of buoys along a section of the Colorado River, just north of Morelos Dam. Those documents did not mention saw blade attachments or submerged nets.
But in the February emails, Flores said the proposed buoys did appear to be modeled after the Texas designs. A Border Patrol design rendering attached to Flores’ email also appeared to be the same image Abbott used during his announcement in June 2023.
Federal immigration officials have been weighing deploying the buoys themselves since 2022, The New York Times reported last year. The Colorado River planning document appears to date back to that year.
The barriers could cost U.S. taxpayers between $3.5 and $4.5 million for every mile-long chain, according to the planning documents.
Flores’ emails were sent to Mike Pacheco, a senior water official at the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the regional water agency which oversees the All-American Canal. KPBS obtained the emails through a public records request to IID.
In an interview Friday, Pacheco said IID didn’t have major concerns about the idea of adding barriers along the Colorado River or the Alamo Canal, both of which are outside the agency’s jurisdiction.
But he said the agency was concerned that the potential barriers might disrupt the flow of the All-American Canal, which ferries water from the Colorado River to farms and cities in the Imperial Valley.
“If they’re going to impact our flows then yeah, we’re going to have major concerns,” Pacheco said. “We don’t want that to be disturbed.”
Pacheco said it was the first time that federal officials had approached IID about the proposal. He declined to say whether IID supported the use of the buoy barriers as an approach to immigration policy but said the agency’s focus was on safety rather than preventing border crossings.
Pacheco said IID had not received any updates about the buoy project since late February. He said the decision to allow or deny the buoy project would ultimately fall to the Bureau of Reclamation.
IID has previously installed a different type of buoy in the All-American Canal in an effort to keep people from drowning. The agency began installing them after facing criticism for failing to prevent people, especially migrants trying to cross the border, from drowning in its canals.
But Pacheco said their buoys are far smaller than Border Patrol’s proposed barriers. He said IID’s buoys also reach from one side of the canal to the other, allowing people to pull themselves out of the water.
Immigrant rights groups have also pushed back on the idea that the buoy barriers would prevent deaths on the Rio Grande.
“These barriers were clearly created to harm migrants seeking safety in our country,” said Priscilla Olivarez, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, in a statement last year.
