Texas authorities have begun arresting migrants at public park near US-Mexico border, official says
As the surge of migrants continues to overwhelm authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border, tensions between Texas and federal officials are escalating.
Video above shows authorities arrest migrants at public park in Texas
Here are the latest developments:
Texas authorities arrested migrants at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, late Wednesday evening and charged them with criminal trespassing, marking the first arrests of migrants since the state took control of the area at the U.S.-Mexico border last week, an official said.
The arrests were announced by Lt. Chris Olivarez at the Texas Department of Public Safety on social media, where he also posted videos on X showing migrants being handcuffed and taken away by authorities.
Single adult migrant men and women were taken into state custody, while migrant families and children were transferred to U.S. Border Patrol, Olivarez said.
“The State of #Texas will maintain a proactive posture in curbing illegal border crossings between the ports of entry,” Olivarez wrote on X.
Migrants arrested for criminal trespassing first face the state charge before they are transferred to U.S. Border Patrol officials, Olivarez said. The arrests took place at Shelby Park and private lands where the landowner granted the state authority to make arrests, Olivarez explained.
The arrests come as tensions flare between Texas and federal officials over the ongoing migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Biden administration informed state officials that they had until the end of Wednesday to stop blocking the U.S. Border Patrol’s access to a 2.5 mile stretch along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by CNN over the weekend.
The blocked-off area includes the location where a woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande near Shelby Park last week. The deaths have augmented the rift between Texas and federal officials over who has jurisdiction in that portion of the Rio Grande area and how to tackle the migrant crisis.
In the letter to Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, DHS said the state’s actions “have impeded operations” and are unconstitutional. The letter also cited the deaths – among the latest in the ongoing migrant crisis – near the park where state authorities have erected fencing and kept out federal agents.
By the end of Wednesday, the DHS warned it would “refer the matter to the Department of Justice for appropriate action and consider all other options available to restore Border Patrol’s access to the border” if Texas doesn’t confirm it will “cease and desist its efforts to block Border Patrol’s access in and around the Shelby Park area and remove all barriers to access to the U.S.-Mexico border,” the letter states.
“Texas’s failure to provide access to the border persists even in instances of imminent danger to life and safety,” the letter from Department of Homeland Security General Counsel Jonathan Meyer stated. “Texas has demonstrated that even in the most exigent circumstances, it will not allow Border Patrol access to the border to conduct law enforcement and emergency response activities.”
Texas AG doubles down on state response
Paxton on Wednesday responded to federal officials, saying “Texas will not surrender,” in a statement issued by his office.
In a three-page letter, Paxton claimed Texas has constitutional authority to defend its territory, an authority he plans to continue fighting for in the courts, according to the letter.
Paxton said in the letter that Border Patrol personnel have access to Shelby Park to respond to medical emergencies.
Video below: Migrants camp on Texas bridge in freezing temperatures
The dispute between Texas and federal officials continues as the White House and lawmakers challenge Texas’ policies, including a new law that deems entering the state illegally a state crime. Disagreements over the issue has also caused a ripple effect in states where migrants have been sent by Texas officials.
Border access debate reaches Supreme Court
The polarizing issue made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court when the Biden administration requested it to intervene after Texas sued over Border Patrol agents’ practice of removing razor wire put in place by the state along a portion of the border near Eagle Pass.
An appeals court ordered the agents to stop removing the wire while legal challenges play out, and the administration has asked the high court to step in on an emergency basis to wipe that order.
The drownings last Friday “underscore that Texas is firm in its continued efforts to exercise complete control of the border and land … and to block Border Patrol’s access to the border even in emergency circumstances,” the Biden administration wrote late Monday in a filing to the Supreme Court in that case.
“It is impossible to say what might have happened if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area – including through its surveillance trucks that assisted in monitoring the area,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the filing.
“At the very least, however, Border Patrol would have had the opportunity to take any available steps to fulfill its responsibilities and assist its counterparts in the Mexican government with undertaking the rescue mission,” she continued. “Texas made that impossible.”
The Texas Military Department, meanwhile, said by the time Border Patrol agents requested access to the site Friday night, “the drownings had occurred, Mexican authorities were recovering the bodies, and Border Patrol expressed these facts to the TMD personnel on site.”
“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,” the Texas Military Department said. “Also, at no point was TMD made aware of any bodies in the area of Shelby Park, nor was TMD made aware of any bodies being discovered on the U.S. side of the border regarding this situation.”
Meanwhile, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday it will rehear a case in which it had initially upheld a lower court’s order directing the state of Texas to remove its border buoys from the Rio Grande. The floating border barriers are expected to stay in the river pending the outcome of the en banc rehearing. Oral arguments in that case are expected to begin in May.