Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to defy the Biden administration after federal agencies told him to remove construction on an island that local authorities say is a base for Mexican drug cartels.
In a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, Governor Abbott said the U.S. branch of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) has directed the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to return Fronton Island to its “pre-construction condition.”
Fronton Island is located on the US-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. The 170-acre island has been the scene of various drug cartel activities, including gunfights and illegal immigration.
“For years, drug cartels have 'randomized' Fronton's 'dense jungles' and the 'bullet-riddled structures' along the river, orchestrating break-ins, surveilling state and federal law enforcement, hiding weapons, planting explosives, evading arrest, and waging open war against rival cartels and state and federal police,” Abbott wrote.
Texas video shows migrants recalling assaults and intimidation by drug cartels at the border
This map shows the location of Fronton Island along the Rio Grande. (Google Maps/Texas Bureau of Land Management)
“In one incident, cited below, authorities discovered 'six assault rifles, one grenade launcher, one rocket launcher, 20 magazines for various sizes of weapons, and three boxes of suspected C-4 plastic explosives' hidden on the island,” he added.
“In a separate incident, troopers in Texas discovered an improvised explosive device 'buried among a pile of weapons and semi-automatic rifle ammunition.'”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to oppose the Biden administration over an island in the Rio Grande. (Mega/Getty Images)
The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers recently received permission from local authorities to patrol and secure the island.
“Law enforcement found ammunition and suspicious devices on the islands, and we feel it's critical that Texas law enforcement have access to these islands to assist with border security during this border crisis,” Dawn Buckingham with the Texas Bureau of Land Management previously told Fox News Digital.
Authorities arrest armed Mexican cartel members who crossed the U.S. border with rifles
Map of Fronton Island in the Rio Glade between Texas and Mexico. (Governor Greg Abbott)
In 2021, Governor Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, an aggressive effort to combat illegal immigration and the flow of drugs into Texas from Mexico. The Texas National Guard and law enforcement have also erected barbed wire fences and other barriers along the border and floated buoys on the Rio Grande to make it more difficult to cross the river.
Additionally, Abbott said, GLO built two sediment bridges on the island, installed barbed wire fences and “cleared vegetation.”The USIBWC, the U.S. partner of the International Boundary and Water Commission, is a joint organization established by the U.S. and Mexican governments to regulate the southern border.
The Biden administration has argued that the island is part of federal land, but Abbott has maintained that it belongs to the state of Texas.
“Your open border policy allowed incursions on our southern border and encouraged criminal activity that threatened the lives of Texas law enforcement, soldiers and citizens,” he said. “Yet in the wake of the crisis it helped to foster, the federal government has refused to enforce federal law, even in dangerous areas like Fronton Island.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott's office, the White House and the IBWC.
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The effort has put Abbott at odds with the Biden administration. Texas secured the island in October, accusing it of being used as a base by Mexican drug cartels.
“For years, Fronton Island has been dominated by violence. Texas has protected the island from drug cartels,” Abbott wrote on X. “The Biden-Harris Administration is now demanding that Fronton Island return to its former self. Today, I told Biden and Harris that Texas will not comply.”
