Texas National Guard Takes Control of Popular Migrant-Crossing Site, Bars Federal Border Patrol Agents from Area

The Texas National Guard has deployed units in Shelby Park, a common illegal border crossing spot in Eagle Pass, and refused to let Border Patrol officials enter the area to collect illegal immigrants.

On Thursday, Border Patrol agents tried to enter into the area, frequently used in recent weeks by federal authorities as a collection zone prior to processing illegal migrants elsewhere, but were denied by Texas state representatives.

“They are denying entry to Border Patrol agents to conduct our duties,” an unnamed official told CBS News on Friday, elaborating that the federal agency was unsure “what authority [Texas officials] have over the federal government.”

The Texas National Guard’s actions “demonstrate an escalation of the State’s measures to block Border Patrol’s ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies,” DOJ and DHS argued in a filing to the Supreme Court on Friday. The filing is part of the Biden administration’s challenge to a new Texas law empowering state and local authorities to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, a power the Biden administration argues is reserved for the federal government.

“Those actions have also changed the situation on the ground from the account in prior filings in this Court, including Texas’s opposition. Those developments reinforce the need for this Court to vacate the court of appeals’ injunction, and to do so as soon as possible,” DOJ solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar wrote.

A statement released by the Texas Military Department, which oversees the state’s National Guard unit, defended the move as an urgent response to border security.

“The Texas National Guard has maintained a presence with security points and temporary barrier in Shelby Park since 2021,” a spokesman noted in an official statement. “The current posture is to prepare for future illegal immigrant surges and to restrict access to organizations that perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings in the park and greater Eagle Pass area.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic mayor of Eagle Pass, Rolando Salinas – who has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis – denounced the move by Texas officials. “This is not something that we wanted,” he declared on Thursday. “This is not something that we asked for as a city.”

White House spokesperson Angelo Hernández condemned the move as an attempt to “politicize the border.”

“Governor Abbott continues his extreme political stunts that not only seek to demonize and dehumanize people, but that also make it harder and more dangerous for Border Patrol to do their jobs,” Hernández added.

The Biden administration and Governor Abbott have repeatedly butted heads over securing the southern border with Mexico. In early January, the White House asked the Supreme Court to approve the removal of razor wire placed along the Rio Grande River separating America from Mexico.

In a petition filed at the time, the DHS requested the Court to vacate an injunction that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit imposed in December permitting the Lone Star State to maintain its concertina-wire barriers along the tributary. “While Texas and the court of appeals believed a narrow exception permitting agents to cut the wire in case of extant medical emergencies would leave federal agents free to address life-threatening conditions, they ignored the uncontested evidence that it can take 10 to 30 minutes to cut through Texas’s dense layers of razor wire,” the court filing reads. “By the time a medical emergency is apparent, it may be too late to render life-saving aid.”

Border Patrol agents have relocated their processing center to a nearby highway while the standoff holds.

Without access to the staging area, mobile intake and loading onto transportation must occur on the shoulder along Loop 480, a busy two-lane highway most frequently used by commercial traffic traveling at a high speed,” Robert Danley, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official wrote in an affidavit attached to Friday’s Supreme Court filing. “Because of the lack of physical space, there is an increased risk to both migrants and agents of traffic-related injury.”