Texas is blocking U.S. border agents from patrolling, Biden administration tells Supreme Court

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Texas is blocking U.S. border agents from patrolling, Biden administration tells Supreme Court

The request Friday sets up another showdown between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.

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Valerie Gonzalez, Associated Press

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Texas is blocking U.S. border agents from patrolling, Biden administration tells Supreme Court​

Politics Jan 12, 2024 1:47 PM EST

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to order Texas to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border where large numbers of migrants have crossed in recent months, setting up another showdown between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.

The request comes after Texas put up fencing to take control of a nearly 50-acre (20-hectare) public park in Eagle Pass, which was a crossing point for thousands of migrants entering from Mexico last year.

“Because Border Patrol can no longer access or view this stretch of the border, Texas has effectively prevented Border Patrol from monitoring the border,” the Justice Department wrote in a filing.

Abbott told reporters Friday that Texas has the authority to control access to any geographic location in the state.

“That authority is being asserted,” Abbott said.

The changes happened Wednesday when the Department of Public Safety informed the Eagle Pass government that the state would be closing public access to the park. The move was an escalation from the governor’s border enforcement efforts known as Operation Lone Star.

Concern grew when Border Patrol noted it, too, lost access to the park, which has a boat ramp that agents use to launch their boats into the Rio Grande. The area also served as a staging area where federal officers would take migrants into custody and process them. The Border Patrol’s access to the site for surveillance was similarly curtailed.

The state and federal government are involved in other legal disputes over actions Texas has taken since 2023, including the use of buoys in the middle of the international river, the installment of razor wire, and an upcoming law that will allow police to arrest migrants.

The state’s policies have been called into question not only by outside critics but internally when a trooper’s account over denying water and urgent medical care made headlines in July.

 

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https://archive.is/dmn18

 

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"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
-Patrick Jake O'Rourke

 

[UWasntThere]

You can't blame Texas for this. If Biden wants an open border he needs to send them federal funding to support each and every individual that crosses.

 

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You can't blame Texas for this. If Biden wants an open border he needs to send them federal funding to support each and every individual that crosses.

what does that support entail exactly?

 

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House Republican Admits He’ll Kill Border Deal If It Helps Biden

Secure the border … unless it helps Biden’s poll numbers.

newrepublic.com

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling/

January 4, 2024/4:03 p.m. ET

House Republican Admits He’ll Kill Border Deal If It Helps Biden​

Secure the border … unless it helps Biden’s poll numbers.​

ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES

Texas Representative Troy Nehls showed his true colors on Wednesday, refusing to back any sort of border deal because he claimed it could help President Joe Biden’s slumping poll numbers.

“Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating,” the MAGA Republican told CNN.

“I will not help the Democrats try to improve this man’s dismal approval ratings. I’m not going to do it. Why would I? Chuck Schumer has had H.R. 2 on his desk since July. And he did nothing with it,” Nehls added.

Republican loyalty to H.R. 2, an asylum-limiting immigration bill that passed in the House with zero Democratic votes, has proven to be an unstoppable headache for Congress with an almost zero percent chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by the president.

That hasn’t stopped House Republicans, more than 60 of whom traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, from rejecting any sort of bipartisan deal on border security.

And Nehl’s confession on Wednesday may hint at the reason why: Republicans care more about who sits in the White House than doing anything about the border situation they keep harping on about.

“When the House clings to H.R. 2 as the only solution … we’re not going to get a deal,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday. “We’re willing to meet the Republicans a good part of the way. I think now in the last few days, many Republicans have begun to realize that we are willing to do that and how serious we are about getting this done.”

The transparently vacuous approach to building a border wall is not an uncommon party trick for conservatives, who have been so inoperative on their self-proclaimed party objectives in recent years that their own caucus has taken to railing against them on the House floor.

In November, Representative Chip Roy laid into his party for failing to pass any laws or reach meaningful policy goals that could translate to campaign talking points, leveraging years of inaction at the border under Trump’s presidency as his primary example.

“One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing. One. That I can go campaign on and say we did,” Roy said. “One!”

“With all due respect to former President Trump, they sure as hell didn’t get border security done when we had the White House and the House and the Senate,” Roy said. “Talked a big game about building a wall and having Mexico pay for it. Ain’t no wall, and Mexico didn’t pay for it, and we didn’t pass any border security.”

 

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Woman, 2 children die crossing Rio Grande as Border Patrol says Texas troops prevented them from intervening

The Texas Military Department pushed back on the claim, saying its personnel were made aware of a distress report but could find no migrants who needed help in the river.

www.nbcnews.com

Woman, 2 children die crossing Rio Grande as Border Patrol says Texas troops prevented them from intervening​

The Texas Military Department pushed back on the claim, saying its personnel were made aware of a distress report but could find no migrants who needed help in the river.

National Guard soldiers stand guard Friday on the banks of the Rio Grande at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas.Brandon Bell / Getty Images

Jan. 14, 2024, 12:26 AM EST / Updated Jan. 14, 2024, 4:01 PM EST

By Dennis Romero

A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday night in Eagle Pass, Texas, after U.S. border agents were prevented from responding, federal officials said Saturday.

In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said U.S. Border Patrol agents were made aware of the migrants’ distress by the Mexican government but were unable to enter the area from the U.S. side after Texas National Guard troops, under the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, prevented them from doing so.

“In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area,” the spokesperson said.

The deaths were highlighted Saturday by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who said the deceased were part of a group of six migrants in the river Friday night who were in distress.

Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of three of the migrants Saturday, Cuellar said in a statement. Identities and exact ages were unavailable.

“Border Patrol attempted to contact the Texas Military Department, the Texas National Guard, and DPS Command Post by telephone to relay the information, but were unsuccessful,” Cuellar said in the statement.

He continued: “Border Patrol agents then made physical contact with the Texas Military Department and the Texas National Guard at the Shelby Park Entrance Gate and verbally relayed the information. However, Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants — even in the event of an emergency — and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation.”

In its own statement, the Texas Military Department disputed that narrative, saying its personnel were made aware of a distress report but could find no migrants needing help in the river and later were made aware of an incident nearby, on the Mexican side of the river, that did not require their help.

The department said it had been in touch with Border Patrol on Friday night, and the agency said Mexican authorities did not need the Texas department’s help.

“At no time did TMD security personnel along the river observe any distressed migrants, nor did TMD turn back any illegal immigrants from the US during this period,” it said.

Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Texas Department of Homeland Security referred such requests to the Texas Military Department, saying it was not involved in Friday night’s incident.

In a statement to NBC News White House Correspondent Allie Raffa, a White House spokesperson said one thing is "clear" about Saturday night's incident: "Governor Abbott's political stunts are cruel inhumane and dangerous."

The statement continued: "U.S. Border Patrol must have access to the border to enforce our laws."

The mayor of Eagle Pass, Rolando Salinas Jr., said during a news conference Thursday he received a phone call the previous day from a Texas Department of Pubic Safety official informing him the state was taking emergency custody of Shelby Park, which lies along the river and is in the area where the three migrants were in distress.

Salinas said a Texas Military Department official confirmed the takeover. The department directs the Texas National Guard.

The move came amid an ongoing court battle between the Department of Homeland Security and Texas over access to the border in Eagle Pass, which DHS says is cordoned off by concertina wire erected by the state. A lower court in December ruled in favor of Texas and barred federal agents from removing the barriers.

The latest U.S. Supreme Court filing by the Department of Homeland Security this week renews its request to prevent the state from blocking federal agents from area.

“Border Patrol’s normal access to the border through entry points in the federal border barrier is likewise blocked by the Texas National Guard installing its own gates and placing armed personnel in those locations to control entry,” the filing stated.

The filing continued, “And the Texas National Guard has likewise blocked Border Patrol from using an access road through the preexisting state border barrier by stationing a military Humvee there.”

White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez told Reuters in a statement on Friday that the state’s efforts to block Border Patrol agents were essentially a form of political theater.

“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,” he said.

The park takeover appeared to be a component of Abbott’s attempts to highlight migrant crossings and shame the Biden administration for what he and other top Republicans have characterized as an open-border policy. Abbott has been sending planeloads of migrants to cities led by elected Democrats that have vowed to care for them or otherwise provide sanctuary.

At a news conference Friday, Abbott said the Eagle Pass takeover was legal and necessary to prevent border crossings and “maintain operational control.”

The governor was criticized for remarks during a radio appearance Jan. 5 during which he said Texas was doing everything short of killing migrants in order to stop illegal crossings.

“The only thing we are not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security on Saturday criticized Abbott’s policies as beyond everyday politics.

“The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks,” it said. “The State of Texas should stop interfering with the U.S. Border Patrol’s enforcement of U.S. law.”

A CBP spokesperson expressed a similar sentiment Saturday: “We are saddened by tragic migrant drownings in Eagle Pass. We remain gravely concerned by actions that prevent the U.S. Border Patrol from performing their essential missions of arresting individuals who enter the United States unlawfully and providing humanitarian response to individuals in need.”

 

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Mexico Condemns Texas Law, and Says It Will Not Accept Deportations From the State

Mexico’s top diplomat for North America rejected the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments.

www.nytimes.com

Mexico Condemns Texas Law, and Says It Will Not Accept Deportations From the State​

Mexico’s top diplomat for North America rejected the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments.

Mexican nationals walked across the Gateway International Bridge into Mexico after being deported by U.S. immigration authorities in 2021.Credit...John Moore/Getty Images

By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

Reporting from Mexico City

• March 19, 2024

Mexico will not accept deportations made by Texas “under any circumstances,” the country’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Texas to arrest migrants who cross into the state without authorization.

The ministry condemned the state law, known as Senate Bill 4, saying it would separate families, violate the human rights of migrants and generate “hostile environments” for the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin living in Texas.

Mexico’s top diplomat for North America, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, rejected the ruling on the social media on Tuesday, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments.

The Mexican government has severely criticized the measure since last year, and rejected the idea of local or state agencies, rather than federal authorities, detaining and returning migrants and asylum seekers to Mexican territory.

“Texas has taken a very combative stance,” said Rafael Fernández de Castro, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican studies at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s only aggravating the problem because you violently close one part of the border, but others are still open.”

A senior Mexican foreign ministry official who was not allowed to speak publicly said that the Supreme Court ruling would not affect existing migration agreements between the two countries.

While Mexico has served as the United States’ immigration enforcer, often discouraging migrants from massing at the border, the country has also publicly pushed for two key policies to address the root causes that force people out of their home countries — such as poverty, violence, inequality and climate change — and expand regular pathways for migration.

Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said his administration was proposing that the Biden administration give legal status to at least five million undocumented Mexicans living and working in the United States.

He has also called on the United States to suspend sanctions against Venezuela and lift the blockade against Cuba, saying that such measures would reduce migration flows from those countries. And he has called proposals to build walls or close the border as “electoral propaganda.”

“Do you think the Americans and Mexicans will approve of this?” Mr. López Obrador said last month. “Companies cannot stand it. Maybe for a day, but not for a week.”

 

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I think a lot of remedials cheering the dumb shyt on don't understand that immigration is a geopolitical issue and states going rogue messes with federal agreements. Not only is most of the shyt they are trying to do a stunt (pass the immigration bill and stack the courts with judges and the backlog can actually get emptied but nah...gotta hold off till Trump gets back in) but they know the more they make a stink about it, President gets blamed no matter what. Let them start sending folks back and one of our biggest trade partners starts bytching when they drop them off in the middle of fukking nowhere.

Example: Migrants being dropped off at random places in Blue cities with zero coordination which was 50% of the problem.