A battle over illegal immigration between federal and state officials in Texas revolves around a disagreement over razor wire, but it has escalated into a standoff over who controls a section of the Texas-Mexico border.
The situation has become a broader political and cultural issue, with other states sending National Guard members and a convoy of trucks heading for the tiny town of Eagle Pass, Texas.
At issue: Texas is continuing to erect razor wire across a 29-mile stretch of the riverbank in Eagle Pass, despite opposition from the Biden administration and a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing federal officials to cut down the wire. The White House said after the ruling that the razor wire makes it dangerous for federal border agents to do their jobs, including to give aid to migrants.
Even after the high court ruling, Texas has barred U.S. Border Patrol from entering Shelby Park, a city-owned park near the Rio Grande where migrants had been entering by the thousands in recent years. The state continues to put up additional razor wire.
Meanwhile, migrants have continued making the treacherous crossings, but the park itself has seen a drop in crossings since December. Last summer, USA TODAY reported that razor wire was causing serious injuries – sometimes to children – including bruises, broken ankles and deep gashes that needed medical staples to close.
Here’s what to know about the contentious fight over how to patrol the border, and the often tragic consequences.
Texas governor defies feds’ efforts at border
The Texas National Guard is installing razor wire along the southern border despite the ruling, as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to prevent migrants from entering the U.S.
“This is not over. Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent to the illegal crossings Biden encourages,” Abbott said on social media on the day of the Supreme Court’s ruling Jan. 22.
Abbott is backed by nearly all Republican state governors. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the latest to send members of its National Guard to aid Texas. DeSantis said the state will soon send up to 1,000 members of its National Guard.
“The goal is to help Texas fortify this border, help them strengthen the barricades, help them add barriers, help them add the wire that they need to so that we can stop this invasion once and for all,” DeSantis said Thursday. “And the states have to band together.”
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What is the tension between US Border Patrol and Texas?
The standoff over control of the Texas-Mexico border has boiled down to the state, controlled by a Republican governor, vs. the federal government, with a Democrat in the White House. It’s an unravelling of a long-held cooperation between the state’s law enforcement and Border Patrol officials.
Immigration enforcement is typically a federal responsibility.
Abbott closed Shelby Park to the public in January in what city officials said was a surprise, putting it in the custody of the state.
Border Patrol had previously been using the park as an area to process migrants crossing the border via the Rio Grande. With the seizure, the park was closed off to federal agents as well, despite pleas from the federal government to enter.
On Friday, no migrants were seen at the park while Texas National Guard members installed additional razor wire.
“It is unconscionable for a public official, to deliberately refuse to communicate, coordinate, collaborate with other public officials in the service of our nation’s interests, and to refuse to do so with the hope of creating disorder for others,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Associated Press.
Clash raises legal, constitutional questions
After Abbott seized control of the park, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision voted to allow federal agents to remove the razor wire in a major victory for the Biden administration.
In court papers, the administration had argued the wire prevents Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that federal immigration law supersede Texas’ own efforts to slow a flow of migrants into the country.
“Texas’ political stunts, like placing razor wire near the border, simply make it harder and more dangerous for frontline personnel to do their jobs,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a spokesman for the White House.
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But Abbott said after the ruling that the state has a right to secure its border, and criticized President Joe Biden for lax enforcement of immigration laws.
“I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property,” Abbott said.
The next moves for the courts or the U.S. Department of Justice are uncertain, but meanwhile, Biden has vowed to take immediate action to “shut down” the border with Mexico if Congress approves a proposal under negotiation in the Senate, and urged lawmakers to pass a bipartisan bill “if they’re serious about the border crisis.”
Standoff draws attention to the human toll of border policies
A Mexican woman and her two children died trying to cross the Rio Grande last month near Shelby Park. Mexican officials alerted U.S. Border Patrol that the three migrants drowned earlier, but two other migrants, another mother and son, were in distress on the U.S. side of the river. Border Patrol agents requested access to the area to find the two, but were denied. Texas officials said personnel didn’t see the two in distress, and Mexican officials ended up rescuing the mother and son, who had symptoms of hypothermia.
The three deaths, and scores of documented injuries while crossing through razor wire, draw attention to the human toll faced by migrants as they continue across the border. In July, USA TODAY spoke with a family whose 5-year-old was snagged by razor wife, causing a 2-inch gash in his calf that had to be stapled shut. The family was processed and released by Border Patrol agents to await a court date.
Alicia Garcia, a resident of Eagle Pass who told the Associated Press she usually avoids Shelby Park, questioned the value of Abbott’s deterrence efforts – which include not only razor wire, but a floating buoy barrier – because many asylum-seekers are released by U.S. authorities until court.
“What’s with the show?” Garcia said. “Better to just break everything down if they are still crossing.”
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, Joey Garrison, Julia Gomez and Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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