HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers on Thursday spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the lack of water payments from Mexico to the United States and its effect on the Rio Grande Valley border region.

The call included Republicans U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales and Monica De La Cruz, as well as Democratic Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. A few of the members who attended the call told Border Report they discussed how to force Mexico to repay its water debt to the United States under a 1944 international treaty.

Mexico owes over 700,000 acre-feet of water by October 2025 and officials highly doubt they can pay that amount before the five-year cycle ends. That’s because they have barely paid over a year’s worth of water, so far, according to the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission.

“Now in the fourth year of a five-year cycle, Mexico continues to fall further and further behind in fulfilling its obligations and releasing the water it owes to the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs, and it is having dire consequences,” Cornyn said.

“We’re owed a significant amount of water,” Gonzalez told Border Report. “Mexico’s never been behind this far.”

De La Cruz told Border Report that Blinken agreed to another phone call with the group next Thursday.

“And between these next seven days, he is going to look at what legal action and punitive actions can be taken against Mexico in order to get them to comply with the water treaty,” De La Cruz said.

Overall, she characterized the meeting as successful and something local leaders have been pushing for quite a while.

“The conversation went very well. The secretary understands the impact that the lack of water has had for our South Texas region. But he sees how this impact is really a national issue,” she said.

A 51-year-old sugar mill closed down earlier this year in Santa Rosa, a rural agriculture community in Hidalgo County, because of a lack of water to grow the thirsty crops.

Lost economic output from irrigated crop production could cost the RGV region over $993 million in 2024, according to a recent report by Texas A&M University’s Center for North American Studies.

Over 500 workers lost their jobs when the sugar mill closed.

And De La Cruz fears the citrus industry could be hit hard unless the region gets water.

“We already saw the loss of our sugar mill in the Rio Grande Valley, one of only three sugar mills in the entire nation. Now our citrus industry is under such stress from lack of water that it could put at risk our citrus industry in South Texas. At a time when inflation is high grocery prices are high. The fact that we will not have the citrus available to Americans means increased prices and dependency on foreign nations to import citrus to our nation. So this has been huge economic impacts nationwide, not just in South Texas,” De La Cruz said.

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez earlier this week issued a disaster declaration due to the drought and water scarcity.

That enables the border county to be eligible for state assistance. And the region could also receive federal funds for infrastructure projects relating to water.

Gonzalez, who represents Brownsville on the Gulf Coast, said the canal system that has been in existence for decades on the border is outdated and too much water evaporates when it passes in the open air, especially during hot triple-digit days.

Gonzalez says underground pipes and other structures need to seriously be considered to prevent evaporation and loss of precious water.

“Moving into the future, we need to create programs, we need to start lining our canals and covering them and just having better conservatory programs. Because we were looking at the shortfalls of the farmer and community water needs. And even if we got paid 100% of the water from Mexico, we’re still way short from where we were in the 80s,” Gonzalez said.

“We need to start changing the ways we deal with water in South Texas and across the country,” he said.

De La Cruz sponsored a House resolution that passed late last year encouraging diplomatic relations between U.S. officials and Mexican authorities to prompt Mexico to pay the water it owes.

Gonzalez says a month ago he met with the secretary of foreign affairs in Mexico City to discuss the situation.

Gonzalez says he believes Mexico is delaying water payments until the new president is elected in June and a new party takes office.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@borderreport.com.