A bipartisan team of Texas legislators spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday regarding the lack of water bills from Mexico to the United States and its impact on the Rio Grande Valley border territory.
The visit included Republicans U. S. Sen. John Cornyn, U. S. Reps. Tony Gonzales and Monica De La Cruz, as well as Democrat Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. A few of the callers who were present told Border Report that they were having discussions about how to compel Mexico to pay its waters loan to the United States in accordance with a 1944 international treaty.
By October 2025, Mexico owes more than 700,000 acres of water, and authorities have no idea when that amount will be paid until the five-year period is over. That’s because they have little paid over a year’s worth of water, but far, according to the U. S. International Boundary and Water Commission.
Mexico” continues to fall further and further behind in fulfilling its commitments and releasing the ocean it owes to the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs,” according to Cornyn, who is currently third in a five-year cycle.” This is having severe consequences.
” We’re owed a significant amount of water”, Gonzalez told Border Report. ” Mexico’s not been behind this way”.
De La Cruz informed Border Report that Blinken agreed to make a third contact with the party on Thursday.
De La Cruz stated that” and between these subsequent seven weeks, he is going to glance at what legal and punitive measures can be taken against Mexico to get them to adhere to the ocean treaty.”
Nevertheless, she described the conference as being effective and a push that local leaders have had for a while.
” The talk went very effectively. The director is aware of the negative effects that the lack of water has had on the South Texas area. But he understands that this influence is actually a nationwide issue, she said.
A 51-year-old sugar mill in Santa Rosa, a remote agriculture community in Hidalgo County, shut down earlier this year because there was no water available to increase the desperate crops.
According to a recent report from Texas A&, M University’s Center for North American Studies, lost economic result from cultivated crop production may cost the RGV place over$ 993 million in 2024.
When the glucose factory shut down, more than 500 workers lost their jobs.
De La Cruz also fears that unless the area gets waters, the lemon market will be severely affected.
One of only three honey factories in the whole country, we now saw the loss of our sugar factory in the Rio Grande Valley. Our citrus economy in South Texas is currently under such strain due to lack of water that it might be putting our lemon industry in danger. Food prices are high at a time of great prices. The fact that Americans wo n’t be able to buy citrus means that foreign countries will have to pay higher prices for it. So this has been big economic consequences global, not just in South Texas”, De La Cruz said.
Judge Richard Cortez of Hidalgo County issued a catastrophe charter earlier this week in response to the dryness and water shortage.
The border province is thus given the opportunity to receive state aid. Additionally, national funding may be available for water-related infrastructure projects in the area.
Gonzalez, a representative for Brownsville on the Gulf Coast, claimed that the decades-old canal system along the border is obsolete and that too much water evaporates when it enters, especially on hot triple-digit days.
Gonzalez asserts that serious consideration must be given to underground pipes and other institutions to stop beautiful waters from vaporizing and disappearing.
We need to start building programs, covering our ditches, and creating better greenhouse programs as we move forward. Because we were examining the farmer’s and community’s water requirements. And even if we got paid 100 % of the water from Mexico, we’re however far little from where we were in the 80s”, Gonzalez said.
He said,” We need to begin transforming the way that South Texas and other parts of the country offer with water.”
De La Cruz spearheaded a House resolution that was passed soon last year to encourage political ties between Mexican and American authorities in order to get Mexico to pay its waters debt.
Gonzalez claims to have met with Mexico City’s international affairs minister to talk about the situation a month ago.
Gonzalez claims that until a new group is elected in June and the new leader is elected, liquid bills are being delayed.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].
