Three migrants—a woman and two children—drowned in the Rio Grande after Texas denied federal agents access to the area, authorities said on Saturday, deaths that come amid escalating tensions between the state and the U.S. government over whose job it is to police the southern border.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told The Washington Post that Border Patrol agents trying to render aid to a group of migrants in distress were “physically blocked” by Texas Military Department personnel from entering Shelby Park, a 2.5-mile strip in Eagle Pass that the state seized in recent days, the U.S. Justice Department said last week. The migrants’ bodies were later recovered from the river by Mexican authorities.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was “gravely concerned by actions” impeding Border Patrol from arresting and providing humanitarian assistance to migrants.
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The federal government’s account confirmed an earlier statement by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Cuellar, who was briefed on the matter, said that Border Patrol had attempted to contact the Texas Military Department, National Guard, and Department of Public Safety after learning about the migrants in distress from the Mexican government.
When the agents failed to make contact with the state over the phone, Cuellar said, they drove to Shelby Park, only to be told by Texas soldiers that they couldn’t go any further. The state told the agents it would send a soldier to investigate the matter, according to the congressman.
“This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility,” said Cuellar, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
The Texas Military Department said in a statement on Saturday evening that they had indeed been contacted by Border Patrol over a “migrant distress situation,” but that officers sweeping the section of river with night vision goggles had been unable to locate anyone.
“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 statement said, according to the Texas Tribune.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson told the Post that migrant drownings were “nothing new.”
“It’s tragic,” the spokesman added. “But you know this has been happening for the last three years and even when [the DPS was] heavily involved in the park, many migrants have drowned there.”
Texas began fencing off Shelby Park with concertina wire on Wednesday night, according to Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas. The Biden administration responded to the takeover—carried out as a part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star—with alarm, filing an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Operation Lone Star, a campaign to stymy what Abbott has called a “tidal wave” of illegal immigration into Texas, has involved the installation of a floating barrier, the deployment of National Guard troops to the border, busing migrants to blue states, and signing a bill putting state officials in charge of immigration enforcement, previously an issue under federal jurisdiction. At a news conference on Friday, Abbott called the Shelby Park standoff necessary to “maintain operational control.”
In its statement, the Department of Homeland Security condemned Abbott’s border policies, calling them “cruel, dangerous, and inhumane.”
“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.”
DHS followed up with a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, blasting the state’s decision to commandeer Shelby Park and “impede” federal operations—calling it “clearly unconstitutional”—while promising to refer the matter to the Department of Justice if Texas authorities do not allow access to the area and remove their makeshift border barriers by Wednesday.
“State law cannot be applied to restrain federal agents from carrying out these federally authorized activities,” Jonathan Meyer, DHS’ general counsel, wrote in the letter, first reported by CBS News.
