Texas Police Investigate Mystery of Disappearing Water Barrels for Migrants

Barrels of water placed near the border with Mexico to prevent undocumented migrants from dehydrating under searing heat in southern Texas have been mysteriously disappearing, prompting questions as to whether they have been intentionally removed.

The barrels were placed near the border in the sparsely populated Jim Hogg County by the South Texas Human Rights Center in recent years, but John Meza, a volunteer with the organization, told the Associated Press that while refilling them in July, he noticed that 12 of the 21 stations were missing.

Ruben Garza, an investigator with the county sheriff’s office, told Newsweek that he was looking into allegations that the barrels had been stolen but suspected they had been moved by individuals who did not know what they were for.

“We’re in the lifesaving business, regardless of what anybody thinks,” said Garza, who was with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for more than 30 years. “Humanity is what we have to protect.”

The number of migrants crossing the southern U.S. border has decreased this year after President Joe Biden allowed a Donald Trump-era policy to expire and implemented a new policy that, while subject to ongoing legal challenges, made migrants ineligible for asylum if they passed through a third country before reaching the border.

Customs and Border Protection agency data shows there had been fewer encounters at the southern border since the start of 2023. Between October and June, there were more than 144,000 encounters compared to nearly 208,000 in the same period the year prior.

But despite being an improvement, there are still many individuals making the treacherous crossing in temperatures often well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

AP reported that images from Google taken over the past two years confirmed that some of the water barrels had disappeared.

Garza said he first received a report from Eddie Canales, executive director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, on July 8 and, despite not having exact locations of where the missing barrels were supposed to be, began driving around “like a crazy man” looking for the sites.

However, he claimed that despite making numerous attempts to contact Canales in the days that followed, he received no response and, vitally, no GPS coordinates, until he was contacted on July 24 by an AP reporter who had been given the coordinates.

“I was really disappointed with that,” Garza said. “In those 17 days, we could have saved a life utilizing his barrels. Before we can even determine if a crime’s been committed, we need a location site. Without a location site of where a crime may have been committed, how do you effectively respond?”

Garza’s investigation has been further complicated by the timeframe. He said he spoke Monday with Meza, who said he had visited the barrels on July 11 but had not visited prior to that for two years. When Canales eventually contacted him that night, he said it was six months, Garza explained.

He added that he had known Canales for a long time and supported his project, saying, “Anybody who starts a program to save lives is a champion.”

Newsweek reached out to Canales via email for comment on Monday and again on Tuesday.

One possibility is that the plastic barrels succumbed to wildfires, which are common in the area owing to its usually hot, dry conditions, which have been exacerbated by the recent heatwaves.

According to Texas A&M Forestry Management, as of Monday there were seven active wildfires in the state and a further 18 that were contained.

Early in August, an 80,000-acre wildfire spread across California and Nevada—and in late June a wildfire near Phoenix took hold of nearly 2,000 acres and led to the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents. Meanwhile, several states in the Southwest have been regularly experiencing temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

A perhaps more macabre possibility is that people were removing the barrels intentionally. John Hunter, who with his wife, Laura, supplies the barrels, told AP their water stations are often subject to vandalism from “people that don’t agree with what we do.”

But asked if locals or potentially militias could be removing the barrels, Garza said of the latter: “If anybody in that capacity were to come close, we would address it right away.

“Everybody has the opportunity to feel the way they feel and I guess we have to respect that, but when it comes to that, remember: We took an oath to protect the people and the children of this country and any other person of any other country that sets foot on our soil.”

Garza also said that local landowners have always been proactive in helping the police and the South Texas Human Rights Center, noting: “Together, we’ve united as a community down here in South Texas because we know the harshness of what’s happening.”

Garza said he was actively working on visiting and inspected each of the 12 sites where barrels have disappeared but said locals he spoke to were confused by the nature of the barrels. One person told him they thought they were there for attracting bees.

“The barrels say ‘AGUA’ in Spanish…but there’s no identifiers,” he said. “Educating the public on what they actually are is extremely important…so that people do know when they’re travelling up and down these roads where these barrels are located, they do have a lifesaving opportunity if needed.”

The barrels have their GPS coordinates and South Texas Human Rights Center written on the inside of the lids.