The mayor of a Texas border city at the epicenter of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's aggressive policy of restricting immigration said Thursday that state troopers were closing down a large park along the Rio Grande without obtaining a permit. He accused the state of escalating another situation by shutting down the country.
The park has become a new stress point in Eagle Pass, where a large wave of migrants arrived last month, temporarily closing railroad crossings and overwhelming evacuation centers. Alejandro Mayorkas of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security visited Eagle Pass on Monday, days after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson toured the border city.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas questioned why the state closed the 50-acre park now, even though daily anxiety has eased in the area in recent weeks. Shelby Park borders the river, has a boat ramp, and has been used by the state to deploy vehicles and equipment for the border mission known as “Operation Lone Star.”
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Salinas said the state has given no warning to Eagle Pass officials and has not given any indication of when the park will reopen. He said he was told by DPS officials that the state manages the park through a disaster declaration, a power Texas officials have used at the border before.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande River into the United States from Mexico wait to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Eagle Pass, Texas, Oct. 19, 2023. The mayor of Eagle Pass announced that state police have closed a large public park along the Rio Grande. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
“That's not a decision we agreed to,” Salinas said. “This is not what we wanted. This is not what we asked for as a city.”
Asked about the closures, Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze did not address the park or the mayor's comments, instead repeating criticism of President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
“Texas will continue to deploy the Texas National Guard, DPS troops and more barriers, and President Biden will leverage all tools and strategies to respond to the ongoing border crisis,” he said in a statement.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.
Eagle Pass is in the path of April's total solar eclipse. Salinas said the city has invested $1 million for a festival planned in the park and expressed concern that the closure would disrupt those plans.
Thousands of people were illegally entering the United States through Eagle Pass during the summer. The numbers subsided, but rose again in December as thousands of immigrants overwhelmed federal government coffers. However, a sharp decline was recorded in early January after Mexico tightened immigration controls.
The mayor said the number of daily arrests has dropped from several thousand to about 400 or 500. Eagle Pass is also where Texas installed buoy barriers across the Rio Grande where immigrants were arrested on state trespassing charges. Last summer, Salinas signed a comprehensive trespassing affidavit authorizing arrests for trespassing on park grounds during a surge in immigrant traffic. After local backlash, he rescinded the affidavit and re-signed it a few weeks later.
