People look across the border from Mexico at the Texas Army National Guard soldiers with the governor’s self-styled Texas Tactical Border Force, during Operation Lone Star Task Force West, May 11, 2023, near El Paso, Texas. (Mark Otte, Texas National/Planet Pix via Zuma Press Wire/TNS)
AUSTIN, Texas (Tribune News Service) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has given Texas until Wednesday to allow Border Patrol agents access to the Rio Grande through a state-controlled city park in Eagle Pass after the federal government blamed the drowning deaths of three migrants on state officials.
The cease-and-desist letter, sent Sunday to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ordered the state to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from entering Shelby Park. If the state refuses, the Biden administration will ask the Justice Department to intervene.
“Texas’s failure to provide access to the border persists even in instances of imminent danger to life and safety,” wrote Jonathan E. Meyer, general counsel for Homeland Security. “Texas’s actions are clearly unconstitutional and are actively disrupting the federal government’s operations.”
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to an email asking how the state planned to respond.
The friction between the state and federal governments over border security operations has escalated since Wednesday, when the state took control of Shelby Park — an almost 50-acre site on the banks of the Rio Grande — over the objections of Eagle Pass’ Democratic mayor.
The tensions, which have reached the U.S. Supreme Court, escalated after the Biden administration blamed the drownings of three migrants, including two children, on state officials for denying Border Patrol the ability to save the group while in distress on Friday.
The Texas Military Department and state officials insist that soldiers did not deny Border Patrol access to the park. The state’s military agency also disputed the timeline of the drownings.
In a statement Sunday night, the Texas Military Department said it was “inaccurate” that Border Patrol agents requested access to the park to rescue the migrants, adding that it’s “wholly inaccurate” that soldiers refused to let Border Patrol save the migrants.
“At the time that Border Patrol requested access, the drownings had occurred, Mexican Authorities were recovering the bodies, and Border Patrol expressed these facts to the TMD personnel on site,” the statement said.
The military department’s timeline is different from the timeline put out by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D- Laredo, who announced the drownings on Saturday.
Cuellar said Border Patrol agents told members of the Texas Military Department that migrants were “in distress” around 9 p.m. Friday. Soldiers with the Texas Military Department told the federal agents that they would not “grant access” to the migrants, Cuellar’s statement said.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Border Patrol, did not immediately respond to an email asking if the military’s Sunday statement was accurate.
Abbott on Sunday blamed the drownings on the Biden administration and accused Cuellar and journalists of inaccurate reporting.
The drownings had already occurred and the bodies recovered on the Mexican side of the river when Border Patrol agents requested access to the river, Abbott said, blaming the deaths instead on “Biden’s Open Border magnet.”
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