The Rio Grande's new reality: Kayaking through Operation Lone Star
EAGLE PASS, Texas (Nexstar) -- Life on the river is not as it once was.
As Jessi Fuentes sets his kayak free in the Rio Grande, he's struck by the abrupt entrapment of his favorite pastime - the river, once free-flowing and free for all to access, now outfitted like the outer walls of a prison.
The banks are bogged in mud, and the Carrizo cane is uprooted for concertina wire. Its razors are strewn with torn T-shirts, perhaps the only thing their one-time owners had on their backs before they surrendered to state troopers.
Fuentes said it looked like Texas was fortifying for an army to invade.
"For me, it hurts," he said. "We live and die by how this river flows. If people don't take care of it, everybody's gonna suffer."
Nexstar received special access to join Fuentes on a kayaking excursion down the river, which is now closed to the public as the state ramps up border security efforts under Operation Lone Star. The goal: reach the buoy barriers. Governor Greg Abbott ordered the thousand feet of floating orange spheres into the middle of the river to deter and bottleneck migrants. Fuentes is now suing the state to remove them.
"This is about the river," he said of the lawsuit. "I just can't believe what they're doing to this river."
Watch KXAN News at 6 for the full report.