Texas Senate panel sends message to Trump: Get our water from Mexico

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McALLEN — Texas senators advanced a resolution Monday that calls on the U.S. State Department to ensure Mexico meets its obligations to deliver water to the U.S. under a 1944 water treaty.

The Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee voted in favor of the resolution after hearing testimony from state and Rio Grande Valley officials on how Mexico's failure to deliver water has impacted the local farmers and stalled growth.

"It's really causing a lot of severe issues not only for the Valley but along the river from El Paso down to Brownsville," state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said at the start of the hearing.

"The reality is that even commercially, the growth of the Valley is being stunned because we cannot issue any more builder's permits because there's no water" Hinojosa said. "Hopefully, the present Trump administration will be a lot more aggressive in trying to address the issue."

Under the 1944 treaty, Mexico is required to deliver a total of 1.75 million-acre feet over a five-year cycle. The current cycle ends in October, yet Mexico is behind on its water deliveries by more than a million acre-feet.

The largely symbolic resolution is the latest push from Texas officials to push the federal government to pressure Mexico. Last year, Texas’ congressional delegation secured $280 million in disaster assistance for Valley farmers.

State Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who chairs the committee, praised the efforts of Maria-Elena Giner, the commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, a division of the U.S. State Department that oversees the water treaty.

Under Giner's leadership, the IBWC secured an amendment to the treaty that provided Mexico more opportunities to deliver water.

However, Perry pointed out that the IBWC has no enforcement power and would like the Trump administration to include the water treaty in their tariff negotiations.

"It would be nice to include water release under the 1944 treaty in those tariff negotiations so that we could get some relief in the Valley," Perry said.

The lack of water for farmers and ranchers has already had harmful effects on the industry. For example, the last sugar mill in Texas closed in 2024.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension estimated that the total economic value lost to South Texas because of the lack of irrigation water is about $993 million per year.

Brian Jones, who sits on the board of the Texas Farm Bureau, testified before the committee about his struggles as a farmer in the Valley.

Jones said he is in "survival mode," planting only half of his crop for the last three years.

"What is crystal clear is that Mexico has no intention of sharing any amount of water they can capture for their own use," Jones said.

In 2022, a tropical storm filled their reservoirs, but Mexico didn't deliver any of that water to the U.S. despite already owing 350,000 acre-feet of water at the time.

However, the lack of water is not just because of Mexico's noncompliance.

In the past, local farmers were able to rely on seasonal tropical storms to fill up the water reservoirs, but the rain missed those watersheds last year. Future rains would fail to make up the debt.

"It's almost mathematically impossible for them to meet their obligations on this cycle," Jones said.

The treaty allows Mexico to pay their outstanding water debt during the next five-year cycle but because there is no timeline, Mexico could theoretically wait until the end of the next five-year cycle to deliver the water it owes for this cycle.

David Dunmoyer with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that while the resolution is a critical starting point, the state can't rely on Mexico alone for water.

"We need an 'all of the above' approach that's desal-produced water and looking to the future of water infrastructure," he said.

Cities and water districts across the Valley have been seeking different sources of water. But city and county leaders told the committee more money is needed to build the infrastructure to obtain and properly treat that water for public use.

While the major impacts have been limited to the agriculture industry, Mark Dombroski, assistant general manager and chief operating officer for the Brownsville Public Utilities, warned that drinking water for cities like Brownsville and McAllen will be at risk if water remains scarce.

"Invest in South Texas and help us secure alternative water solutions now," Dombroski said. "Delaying action only makes the crisis worse and solutions more expensive."

Disclosure: Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas Farm Bureau and Texas Public Policy Foundation have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

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