Drifting anti-immigrant buoys close Rio Grande bridges 72%
By Carlos Nogueras Ramos13% Alex Nguyen42%
7/17/2026, 4:21:22 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Availability Heuristic, and Appeal to Authority, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 23.3% saturation with 134 hits. Analysis detected 1,222 faulty-reasoning hits from 576 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 65.3% and a BS Rank of 72% (5,269 of 18,585 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 71.70% of the article peer group.
Buoys that the federal government planned to install as anti-immigration deterrents drifted into the Rio Grande amid severe flooding, prompting officials to close several key bridges along the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass on Thursday and in Laredo on Sunday.
Eagle Pass shut down transit at two bridges for about three hours Thursday while it worked to determine whether the approximately 100 buoys posed a threat, City Manager Homero Balderas said.
About 9,000 vehicles cross both bridges daily, transiting between Eagle Pass and Las Piedras.
“The bridges are the number one funding source for the city,” Balderas said, adding the wayward buoys didn’t immediately endanger the bridges.
“So it is very detrimental.
Luckily, we were able to temporarily close, just to make sure that there were no safety concerns with the buoys floating downriver and obviously passing under the bridges.”
River levels at the Rio Grande began rising Thursday after relentless rain pummeled the Hill Country and parts of southeast Texas, according to the National Weather Service.
A U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said a government contractor was responsible for the buoys staged at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass and was working with the agency to retrieve them.
The buoys were not ready to be deployed or anchored in the river.
“Waterborne barriers are intended to create a safer border environment for patrolling agents, as well as deter migrants from attempting to illegally cross the border through dangerous waterways,” the spokesperson said.
State Rep.
Eddie Morales Jr., D-Eagle Pass, said on social media that personnel had already begun removing the adrift buoys.
Shipping containers and temporary fencing had been removed from Shelby Park, Morales said.
In a statement, Morales said the buoys created “more unnecessary obstacles for first responders.”
“I have always been opposed to these buoys because I did not believe they would be effective and now we are seeing even more consequences,” he said.
“There is deep concern not just with the buoys, but the hundreds of miles of razor wire that may have been dislodged from the riverbank as well.
We should begin to have the necessary conversations about removing these barriers and return to a sense of normalcy to our communities, while ensuring our border is both safe and secure.”
Some of the buoys still reached Laredo, a major border city that is more than 100 miles southwest from Eagle Pass.
As a result, the City of Laredo said early Sunday afternoon that federal crews were working to extract the buoys lodged at the base of the World Trade Bridge, prompting commercial traffic to be diverted to the Colombia Solidarity Bridge.
The two bridges were about a 40-minutes drive apart as of 4:15 p.m., with Google Maps warning about “slower traffic than usual.”
The city’s statement added that there was no sign of structural damage to the World Trade Bridge — which is one of the busiest commercial ports of entry in the country — but the buoys needed to be removed so that engineers could fully evaluate the bridge.
Hours later, the city announced that normal commercial operations will resume on Monday.
“The safety of our community will always be our highest priority,” Laredo Mayor Victor D.
Treviño said in the statement.
“I appreciate the collaboration of our local, state, federal, and Mexican partners, as well as the patience of the trade community, as we worked together to protect this critical international crossing.”
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