Texas hit back at the Biden administration on Wednesday, filing a standalone request for the Department of Homeland Security to allow federal border officials access to Shelby Park, a hub of illegal border crossings. Seishu informed them that it would not comply.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week took control of Eagle Pass Park and erected a fence to prevent access by citizens and federal border agents as part of a state of emergency to combat the migrant crisis.
“The facts and the law are on Texas' side, so the state will continue to use its constitutional authority to protect its territory, and I will continue to defend these lawful efforts in court,” said Texas Attorney General Ken. Paxton said. wrote in a letter To DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer.
He added, “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should stop wasting its scarce time and resources prosecuting the state of Texas and start enforcing the immigration laws Congress has already established.” .
Paxton's rebuttal follows a cease-and-desist letter issued by the Biden administration on January 14, blocking U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing a roughly 2.5-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border along Shelby Park. demanded that the country stop doing so. Adjacent to the Rio Grande River.
“Your letter misrepresents both the facts and the law demanding that Texas surrender to President Biden’s open borders policy,” Paxton charged, adding that the letter “misrepresents what happened at Shelby Park.” “It betrays a lack of understanding on the ground about what is going on,” he added. ”
The White House and Department of Homeland Security on Saturday accused Texas authorities of blocking Border Patrol agents from providing emergency aid to three migrants – a woman and two children – who drowned near Shelby Park the night before. did.
But the Biden administration later acknowledged that the three migrants died at least an hour before Border Patrol asked them to enter the park.
The Justice Department said in a Supreme Court filing Tuesday that Mexican authorities notified the Border Patrol at 9 p.m. local time that the migrants had drowned at 8 p.m., but two more migrants were found in the Rio Grande River. It was revealed that the ship was “in distress” on the US side. .
The two migrants were rescued by Mexican authorities but were found to be suffering from hypothermia.
The Justice Department argued that federal agents could have found the drowning migrants if they had access to the park.
“It is impossible to say what would have happened if the Border Patrol had had access to this area, including through the surveillance trucks that previously supported surveillance of the area,” the filing states. “But at the very least, the Border Patrol should have had the opportunity to fulfill its responsibility and do everything possible to assist their Mexican government counterparts in carrying out their rescue mission. Texas made that impossible.” ”
Paxton said in the letter that blaming the state of Texas for the tragic death is “despicable” and “completely inaccurate.”
“Contrary to your letter, [the Texas Military Department] did not prevent U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering Shelby Park to attempt a water rescue of a migrant in distress,” the attorney general wrote. “The federal agents at the gate didn't even have a boat and didn't request entry, citing a medical emergency.”
“Instead, federal agents informed the TMD sergeant that Mexican authorities had already recovered the body and the situation was under control,” he added. “Still, the Texas State Guard conducted an intense search, only to find that Mexican authorities had recovered the bodies of the migrants on the riverbank downstream from the Shelby Park boat launch.”
Governor of Texas I weighed myself on Wednesday.“Biden was clearly wrong to blame Texas for the Rio Grande deaths,” he tweeted.
“As a federal judge has already ruled, Mr. Biden and the Department of Homeland Security are 'creating perverse incentives' for migrants to make dangerous illegal crossings,” Abbott added. “Biden is responsible for the drowning.”
