The state of Texas has spent billions of dollars enhancing border security amid the Biden border crisis, but the governor is now warning migrants of wild alligators at the border.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) shared a video on social media overnight that showed a large alligator in the Rio Grande, a river that serves as the border between Texas and Mexico.
“Alligators are in the Rio Grande. FYI there are warning signs posted in some sectors. Cross at your own risk,” Abbott posted on X.
The alligator was spotted by a resident of Eagle Pass, where the state has installed massive amounts of barbed wire, cargo shipping containers, and has military at the river to deter migrants from crossing.
The alligator could be the same alligator that has been spotted in the past in the Rio Grande.
Texas Border Patrol agents told the Washington Examiner in 2019 that they feared an alligator spotted at that time posed a threat to migrants, who at points over the past three years have walked and swam across the river by the thousands daily.
“It’s never snapped at anyone. The guys who work boat patrol see it every once and a while, and it checks them out,” Jon Anfinsen, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council’s Del Rio chapter, told the Washington Examiner at the time.
“So far, it hasn’t snapped at anybody or eaten a kid. I imagine if that were to happen, the wardens would go after it,” Anfinsen said.
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In the last couple of years, as more migrants have attempted to cross the river, the city of Eagle Pass has documented more drownings than ever before.
City, state, and federal law enforcement have not attributed any migrant deaths to the result of an alligator attack, but concerns remain given the animal’s presence.