Texas authorities have placed additional razor wire to deter migrants in Eagle Pass after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defied the Biden administration's threat of legal action.
Workers were filmed unpacking and installing razor wire in Shelby Park, which had previously served as a staging area for processing during migrant surges at the heavily trafficked border crossing near the Rio Grande.
The razor wire is at the center of the lawsuit between Texas and the federal government. Paxton on Wednesday informed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Texas will not comply with a demand letter ordering the state to permit federal border authorities into Shelby Park. The Texas Military Department (TMD) seized control of the park last week, saying the move was necessary to prevent further illegal immigration into Eagle Pass. There were over 302,000 migrant encounters in December alone after a record-setting 2.4 million encounters in fiscal 2023.
DHS called the move unconstitutional and said Texas authorities were blocking Border Patrol from approximately 2.5 miles of the border. The administration also said some barriers deployed by Texas sit on federal land.
DHS THREATENS TEXAS WITH LEGAL ACTION OVER SEIZURE OF PARK ALONG RIO GRANDE: ‘CEASE AND DESIST’
"We demand that Texas cease and desist its efforts to block Border Patrol’s access in and around the Shelby Park area and remove all barriers to access in the Shelby Park area," states a Jan. 14 letter addressed to Paxton.
The state attorney general replied on Wednesday, accusing the federal government of misstating both the facts on the ground in Texas and the law.
"Because the facts and law side with Texas, the State will continue utilizing its constitutional authority to defend her territory, and I will continue defending those lawful efforts in court," Paxton wrote to DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer.
"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should stop wasting scarce time and resources suing Texas, and start enforcing the immigration laws Congress already has on the books," he added.
BIDEN DOJ SEEKS SUPREME COURT INTERVENTION OVER TEXAS RAZOR WIRE AT SOUTHERN BORDER
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House both took aim at Texas after three migrants drowned, including two children, in the Shelby Park area last week. DHS had said Border Patrol agents "were physically barred by Texas officials" from entering the area to provide emergency medical assistance.
But in court documents filed as part of ongoing litigation, the Department of Justice admitted that Mexican officials advised Border Patrol at 9 p.m. local time that the migrants had drowned at 8 p.m., and that there were an additional two migrants "in distress" on the U.S. side of the border. The filing repeats the claim that Border Patrol was not allowed to enter the area "even in emergency situations." The two additional migrants, who were suffering from hypothermia, were later rescued by Mexican officials.
However, the DOJ suggested that it may have been able to spot the migrants if they had access to the area.
"It is impossible to say what might have happened if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area — including through its surveillance trucks that assisted in monitoring the area," DOJ officials said. "At the very least, however, Border Patrol would have had the opportunity to take any available steps to fulfill its responsibilities and assist its counterparts in the Mexican government with undertaking the rescue mission. Texas made that impossible."
DHS SAYS BORDER PATROL BLOCKED BY TEXAS FROM ENTERING AREA TO RESCUE MIGRANTS WHO LATER DROWNED
In his letter, Paxton called it "vile" and "completely inaccurate" to blame Texas for the three migrant deaths.
"Contrary to your letter, TMD did not prevent U.S. Border Patrol from entering Shelby Park to attempt a water rescue of migrants in distress. The federal agents at the gate did not even have a boat, and they did not request entry based on any medical exigency," Paxton wrote.
"Instead, the federal agents told TMD's staff sergeant that Mexican officials had already recovered dead bodies and that the situation was under control," Paxton wrote (emphasis his). "Texas’s Guardsmen nevertheless made a diligent search, only to confirm that Mexican officials had recovered the migrants’ bodies, downriver from the Shelby Park boat ramp and on their side of the river."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also said "[President] Biden was clearly wrong to blame Texas for deaths in the Rio Grande."
"As a federal judge already ruled, Biden & DHS ‘create a perverse incentive’ for migrants to make dangerous illegal crossings," Abbott wrote in a post on X. "Biden is to blame for drownings."
Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
