Breaking News: (Video) Department of Homeland Security installs first segment of floating border barrier on the Rio Grande

DHS has begun installing its massive floating buoy barrier which could include more than 500 miles.

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Border Militarization
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January 31, 2026

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security began installing the first mile of more than 500 miles of floating buoy barriers on the Rio Grande.

The installation took place between the Veterans International Bridge and Monsees Road in Brownsville, Texas. The segment will be at least 17 miles long, according to a CBP press release. The Border Chronicle captured drone footage of the installation yesterday from the Mexican side of the river.

Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, held a press conference on January 7 in Brownsville, Texas, announcing the installation of the floating barriers. The Trump administration said it will install more than 500 miles. Each cylindrical buoy is approximately 15 feet long and 5 feet tall and are being anchored with steel cables to the river’s floor by a floating barge. The company constructing the barriers is Gibraltar Perimeter Security based in Burnet, Texas, at a cost of $96 million — approximately $5.6 million a mile.

DHS Secretary Krisit Noem announces installation of the floating barriers during a press conference in Brownsville, Texas, on Jan. 7 (Photo credit: DHS)

The installation of the floating barrier is in clear violation of the U.S.-Mexico water treaty, which requires both countries to agree to any structure that can potentially divert the course of the river. For years, Mexico has filed diplomatic protests regarding violations of the U.S.-Mexico binational treaty as more wall barriers, shipping containers and other construction has taken place in the river’s floodplain.

In 2023, the Biden administration sued Texas after it installed a different chain-like type of buoy barrier near Eagle Pass, claiming among other violations in the lawsuit, that the installation had damaged diplomatic relations with Mexico.

Last week, The Border Chronicle requested access from DHS to fly a drone to film the installation from the US-side of the Rio Grande and was denied by the agency, which said it was placing “a media hold” on requests. The entire section of the river was placed under a National Defense Area designation, and military control in September 2025. The only way to document the U.S. government’s actions on the binational river was from Mexico. Several stories were published yesterday and today in the Mexican media about the installation of the barriers.

 The Border Chronicle will have more on this story in the coming days. Drone footage credit: Victor Loera

For more context:

Author
Melissa del Bosque

Melissa del Bosque is Co-founder and Executive Director of The Border Chronicle. Melissa has written about the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998 for various media outlets, including ProPublica, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Texas Observer, and The Intercept.

Her work has been recognized with numerous U.S. and international journalism awards, including a Gabo Award and the Internacional Rey de España de Periodismo award, as the U.S.-Mexico investigations editor for Lighthouse Reports. In 2020, del Bosque received the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award as part of a ProPublica group reporting project “Inside the Border Patrol.” In 2016, she received the Hillman Prize for her investigative feature “Death on Sevenmile Road” about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2015, del Bosque’s four-part series with The Guardian on migrant deaths in South Texas won an Emmy and a National Magazine Award. 

Del Bosque is also the author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty. She has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s in Public Health from the Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health, and a Bachelor’s in poetry and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

In her spare time, Melissa loves to travel, spend time with her family, and explore the Sonoran Desert.

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