MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that Texas’s claim to nine islands in the Rio Grande is an “electoral issue” and that Texas has no authority to settle questions of sovereignty on the border amid Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Speaking at her morning press conference on November 3, the day of the U.S. midterm elections, Sheinbaum said Texas officials “are in elections and pretend, declaratively, to say that these islands are already part of Texas. But no.” Asked directly whether the claim was electorally motivated, she answered, “Yes, from my point of view, yes.”
Sheinbaum also rejected the idea that a U.S. state can decide the matter alone:
“First, the government of Texas does not decide. All of that is decided through a commission,” she said, adding that such islands can form through natural shifts in the river’s channel, which is why a bilateral body must determine which side of the border they fall on.
Texas Claims
The claim comes from the Texas General Land Office. On October 27, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said a review of historical records and surveys had “confirmed these nine islands belong to the State of Texas,” according to News 4 San Antonio.
The islands total about 27 hectares (roughly 66 acres) and lie along the Rio Grande between the Laredo area and McAllen.
Buckingham told the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department in a letter that they may access the islands for border security operations. “Texas land will never become a safe haven for cartels, human traffickers, smugglers, or other criminal organizations,” she said.
The GLO has not confirmed criminal activity on the islands.
The claim covers nine of 28 river islands that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had raised questions about, which were previously considered unclaimed or of unestablished ownership.
On October 30, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry (SRE) rejected any unilateral change to the border. It cited the 1970 Boundary Treaty, which places the international line at the center of the river’s normal channel. The SRE said only the International Boundary and Water Commission (CILA) can determine which side of the border each island is on.
The Mexican government added that Mexico will monitor any action in the area.
This is not Texas’s first move on river islands along the U.S. southern border. In 2023, the state declared 170 acres on Fronton Island to be state land, and state agencies later cleared vegetation there under Operation Flat Top. It is not clear whether Fronton is among the nine islands.
The dispute also comes amid wider migration and border tensions between the two countries, which have grown since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
No response from Texas officials to Sheinbaum’s remarks had been reported at the time of writing.
