DALLAS — Jessie Fuentes has seen many changes in his life on the southern Texas border.
But what’s been happening lately along the Rio Grande river has turned this lifelong resident of Eagle Pass into an unlikely crusader, a Texas kayaker taking on Gov. Greg Abbott at the border.
“When I saw them bulldoze one of my favorite islands in the middle of the river, I said that’s enough. That’s enough. The river needs to be represented here. What you’re doing to our community, to my livelihood, that’s enough,” he relayed with conviction on this week's episode of Y’all-itics.
Fuentes thinks the state took out the island to turn the area into a staging point for a wall of buoys that now float in the middle of the Rio Grande.
Abbott ordered them installed to try to deter migrant crossings in Eagle Pass, the county seat of Maverick County. The state installed the first 1,000 feet of buoys there after claiming a surge in attempted crossings in the county.
Fuentes argues that is not the reality on the ground in his community.
The owner of Epi’s Canoe and Kayak Team, a local rental outfit, he leads kayak tours along the river, something he’s done for decades.
He says there’s a stigma on the American side that the river is a villain and the folks coming at us from the opposite side are our enemies.
“You could stand out there for hours and you might see one or two or three immigrants. You’re not going to see hordes. You’re not going to see militias. You’re not going to see mules packed with backpacks of drugs or anything like that. You’re not going to see that. It’s a story that’s being blown out of proportion,” Fuentes countered.
And that’s why he says it’s so hard to understand what’s happening now.
Beyond the buoys, Fuentes says concertina wire (razor wire) is simply part of the landscape now.
And you can’t go anywhere, he says, without seeing state troopers taking part in Operation Lone Star, the Governor’s border security initiative.
“There’s soldiers camped under the international bridge. You can’t get anywhere. They’re on Humvees. They’re in the air. It’s a military zone,” a frustrated Fuentes said. “And all I want to do is get on the river. All I want to do is get people to enjoy the natural beauty of this majestic waterway. And I’m having a very hard time with that.”
What’s more, Fuentes doesn’t think the buoys will stop anyone, instead only serving as a hindrance to the flow of water, making it more dangerous for everyone, law enforcement and local residents included.
So the unlikely crusader is now going toe-to-toe with the state.
Fuentes filed a lawsuit, initially seeking an injunction to prevent the buoys from going into the water in the first place.
But now that the large, floating balls are already there, he says they’ll have to change strategy.
He’ll keep fighting, though, until the bitter end because he says he has a community - and a river - to protect.
“If you don’t live here, you don’t know here,” he told us.
No hearing date has been scheduled yet. But before he makes his argument in court, Fuentes first explains it to the Jasons. Listen to the entire episode of Y’all-itics to hear more about their strategy and what’s actually happening on the ground along the southern Texas border. Cheers!