Texas fights federal government on the escalating crisis at border

Tensions surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border have escalated between U.S. President Joe Biden and Texas, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott blocking federal Border Patrol agents from accessing the border and attempting to grant state and local police the authority to arrest migrants without authorization from the federal government.

Abbot has fenced off Shelby Park in the border city of Eagle Pass, a common site of illegal crossings from Mexico, preventing federal Border Patrol agents from entering.  Large groups of migrants turn up in Eagle Pass, waiting for an appointment in order to make their case for seeking asylum. 

Others attempt to cross the Rio Grande to get farther into America, resulting in Abbott to install a floating barrier in the river as part of his ongoing plan to secure the border known as Operation Lone Star, which draws funding from Texas tax dollars and donations.

Abbott publicly stated that the state wouldn’t allow Border Patrol onto the property, and the Department of Homeland Security reported that three migrants, two of which were children, drowned in the Rio Grande after the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard prevented federal agents from accessing the area to attempt a rescue.

In a statement regarding the incident, Homeland Security said that “The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks.” The Texas Military Department responded, claiming that two of the bodies had already been retrieved by Mexican authorities and that Border Patrol was asking to pursue two other migrants.

Razor wire was also installed along the banks of the Rio Grande, which the Supreme Court ruled Border Patrol had the authority to cut and remove. Texas stated that, despite that, they would continue to install wire barriers.

The Biden Administration is currently suing Texas over a bill that Abbott signed into law in December of last year and would go into effect on March 5. The law would make immigration a state issue, empowering Texas law enforcement to arrest and charge migrants, first with a misdemeanor, then a felony on a second offense, and either force them to return to Mexico or prosecute them.

The law is a direct challenge to the U.S. federal government, who has had the authority over issues pertaining to immigration, and is likely to eventually end up in the Supreme Court. Biden’s administration has said the law conflicts with multiple federal laws and interferes with the federal government’s role in foreign policy.

The Mexican government has also opposed the law, saying that the law “will result in the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling.”

“Mexico also expresses its concern regarding the package of legislative measures that will affect the human rights of the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin residing in Texas, by fostering hostile environments that may lead to hate acts or crimes against migrant communities,” the statement said.

Abbott announced on Feb. 16 an expansion to Texas’ border control with the creation of a Forward Operating Base to house the Texas National Guard. The announcement also included Abbott’s other actions in securing the border, such as securing over $11 billion in funding, appointing a “Border Czar,” busing migrants to other states, designating Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, deploying a new “Texas Tactical Border Force,” and acquiring steel panels to build the Texas border wall.

By the end of 2023, migrant encounters hit a record high, with 250,000 encounters in December, though that fell to 124,000 this past January. 

Many of these migrants are seeking asylum, fleeing from violence and persecution from their home countries, though there is a divide in the discussion on how legitimate their claims are.

According to The New York Times, detractors of the immigration system says it allows migrants to claim they’re seeking asylum and remain in the country for years as they wait for their case to be heard. Advocates of and experts on immigration, meanwhile, claim that all migrants have the right to seek asylum and “attempts to bar or limit them are both illegal and immoral.”

Asylum-seekers, as part of an initial screening, must establish in front of a judge that they cannot return to their home country due to “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.”

Biden, meanwhile, has been urging for greater power over the border. On Jan. 26, Biden released a statement urging Congress to pass into law a bill that would give the President the ability to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed, which Biden has said he would do immediately. He has also requested funding for additional Border Patrol agents, immigration judges, asylum officers and “cutting-edge inspection machines” to detect fentanyl at the border.