Texas National Guard troops stationed along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass as part of Gov. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star keep watch for migrants attempting to enter the U.S. Credit: Michael Karlis

As Texas continues to bake under relentless heat, a South Texas sheriff’s office and a human rights activist are working to replace missing water stations put out for migrants traveling through inhospitable terrain, as first reported by the Associated Press.

The stations, meant to help avoid migrant deaths, were first reported missing in July. Using Google Maps, the AP confirmed that some of the barrels first began to go missing two years ago.

John Meza, a volunteer with the South Texas Human Rights Center in Jim Hogg County, told the AP he hoped the water barrels were moved due to some sort of misunderstanding. However, he noted that U.S. Border Patrol agents have maliciously destroyed watering stations for migrants in the past.

According to the AP report, 12 of 21 water stations — 55-gallon blue drums with the word “AGUA” painted in white — are missing from Jim Hogg County. The sparsely populated county is located about 100 miles south of San Antonio.

Meza’s group and personnel from the Jim Hogg County Sheriff’s Office said that without access to the water barrels, migrants trekking through the Texas brush could succumb to the elements, especially during the ongoing heatwave.

One theory is that some barrels melted due to Texas’ unusually active wildfire season this year. However, an investigator from the Jim Hogg County Sheriff’s Office told the AP that there were no signs of melted blue plastic during a recent walk through areas where the barrels went missing.

The investigator said the Texas Department of Transportation is believed to have moved at least three of the barrels, which weigh an average of 85 pounds. TxDOT has denied these allegations.

The missing water stations have gone missing amid Gov. Greg Abbott’s $4.4 billion immigration crackdown, Operation Lone Star. Earlier this summer, the Republican governor deployed buoys in the Rio Grande River and razor wire along its banks, drawing a lawsuit from the federal government and condemnation from human-rights groups.

Abbott’s office was unavailable for immediate response to the Current‘s inquiry whether personnel involved in Operation Lone Star moved the barrels.

Advocates argue that immigration-enforcement officials have interfered with nonprofits’ water distribution in the past.

Pro-migrant nonprofit No More Deaths released a video in 2018 showing Border Patrol agents kicking over and emptying gallon jugs of water left out for migrants, the AP reports. Between 2012 and 2015,  the group documented the destruction of some 3,600 gallon jugs of water left out for migrants in the Arizona desert.

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This article appears in Aug 9-22, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...