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I agree that their purpose is to block people. It does seem strange that there is a treaty that says you can't try to impede people crossing the border. I wonder if navigable normally refers to crossing a river rather than traveling down it lengthways.
Here is the legal US definition of navigable waterway: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33/chapter-II/part-329
The US definition of navigable may not be that relevant as this is a treaty, not a US law. I don't know anything about how terms in treaties are interpreted, but I imagine that the treatment must be symmetric, so if US law matters, then so must Mexican law.
I also don't know enough to tell if the Rio Grande is navigable. Allegedly it is "too thick to drink and too thin to plow."
Treaties are US law, assuming they're ratified by 2/3 of both houses of congress.
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My understanding is that it was considered "navigable" under the legal definition, but farther upstream (heh) in the comments someone said that ACOE doesn't consider it navigable, so now I'm lost.
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