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Posts tagged ‘Eagle Pass Texas’

DOJ renews SCOTUS push to act after Texas seizes border areas, blocks Border Patrol from entering


Adam Shaw By Adam Shaw Fox News | Published January 12, 2024 3:08pm EST

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-renews-scotus-push-act-texas-seizes-border-areas-blocks-border-patrol-from-entering

The Department of Justice has renewed its push for the Supreme Court to act on an ongoing legal dispute between Texas and the federal government after a dramatic move in which Texas seized control of a park near the border and blocked Border Patrol from entering.

“Texas’s new actions since the government’s filing demonstrate an escalation of the State’s measures to block Border Patrol’s ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies,” the DOJ told the high court in an overnight supplemental filing on Friday.

The Texas National Guard seized Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas and set up razor wire and fences to block off the area. Eagle Pass has been one of the hottest spots of migrant crossings in the three-year border crisis and Shelby Park is a key staging area for processing during the enormous migrant surges the state has seen.

TEXAS SEIZES CONTROL OF PARK, BLOCKS BORDER PATROL FROM ENTERING, AS PART OF ANTI-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION EFFORTS

In a statement, the Texas Military Dept. said it has maintained a presence in the park since 2021, including with security points and temporary barriers.

“The current posture is to prepare for future illegal immigrant surges and to restrict access to organizations that perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings in the park and greater Eagle Pass area,” it said.

Jan 11 2024: Texas troopers secure Shelby Park near Eagle Pass. (Fox News)

Senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources later confirmed that Border Patrol is being blocked at two areas of operation in Eagle Pass and said that agents pulled resources to avoid a confrontation. In the overnight filing, the DOJ says Border Patrol learned of the new barriers late on Wednesday and says that the barriers stop Border Patrol from reaching the Rio Grande Reiver in certain areas.

“It also includes the staging area that Border Patrol has used to evaluate and begin inspecting migrants that it has apprehended along this stretch of the border,” the administration said.

The government says that Border Patrol had requested access to use a boat ramp and to access the staging area but were refused access.

The move ramps up an ongoing dispute between Texas and the administration over Texas’ setting up of razor wire along the southern border to stop illegal crossings. The Biden administration was recently blocked by an appeals court from cutting or damaging the wire, and asked the Supreme Court to intervene as a result. The administration said the wire was preventing agents from apprehending migrants and accessing parts of the border.

The latest filing comes as part of the case, with the DOJ pointing to claims Texas had previously made that agents could access the border via boat or road without cutting the wire, and said that now the one safe and operationally practical boat ramp was blocked.

“Because Border Patrol can no longer access or view this stretch of the border, Texas has effectively prevented Border Patrol from monitoring the border to determine whether a migrant requires the emergency aid that the court of appeals expressly excepted from the injunction,” it argues.

BIDEN LAWSUIT OVER TEXAS IMMIGRATION LAW LATEST ATTEMPT TO STIFLE STATE’S MOVES TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

The filing argues that the new actions have “changed the situation on the ground from the account in prior filings in this Court, including Texas’s opposition.’

“Those developments reinforce the need for this Court to vacate the court of appeals’ injunction, and to do so as soon as possible,” the DOJ says. “This Court should vacate the injunction pending appeal in order to restore Border Patrol’s access to the border it is charged with patrolling and the migrants it is responsible for apprehending, inspecting, and processing.”

It’s one of several ongoing disputes between the Biden administration and Texas over the southern border. The government has sued Texas over its establishment of buoys along the Rio Grande and a recent anti-illegal immigration law that allows for state and local police to arrest illegal immigrants.

Texas has stood by its policies, saying that it is acting where the Biden administration has failed to secure the border.

BIDEN DOJ SEEKS SUPREME COURT INTERVENTION OVER TEXAS RAZOR WIRE AT SOUTHERN BORDER

Video

“Texas is holding the line at our southern border with miles of additional razor wire and anti-climb barriers to deter and repel the record-high levels of illegal immigration invited by President Biden’s reckless open border policies. Instead of enforcing federal immigration laws, the Biden Administration allows unfettered access for Mexican cartels to smuggle people into our country,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, the Border Patrol Union backed Abbott, saying he is enhancing operations, not harming them.

“His seizing control of Shelby Park allows our agents to deploy to troubled spots that experience high numbers of gotaways. Governor Abbott’s actions should be seen as a force multiplier,” National Border Patrol Council Brandon Judd said in a statement.

Fox News Bill Melugin and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

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Democrat mayor blames Biden for explosion of immigrants in his town coming in ‘without any consequence’


By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/democrat-mayor-biden-to-blame-for-unacceptable-immigrant-surge.html/

Jesus Ramirez, 29, with a Venezuelan flag, crosses into the U.S. from Mexico with hundreds of Venezuelans in Eagle Pass, Texas, early on September 23, 2023. Thousands of migrants arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border September 22, hoping to be allowed into the United States, with U.S. border forces reporting 1.8 million encounters with migrants in the last 12 months. | PAULA RAMON/AFP via Getty Images

A surge of illegal immigrants in a Texas town has led to increased crime and forced the closure of a lucrative international bridge, prompting the town’s Democrat mayor to blame President Joe Biden for the crisis.

During a recent interview with Erin Burnett on CNN’s “OutFront,” Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas described the situation as “very serious” for the city, which has a population ranging from 28,000 to 30,000.

“In the last couple of days, we’ve had an excess of 5,000 people cross from Piedras Negras, Mexico, into Eagle Pass, Texas,” he told the cable news network.

Salinas lamented that people were being “let loose” into the community, raising safety concerns and leading to the closure of their international bridge, a significant source of revenue. “You have all these thousands of people just walking in, without any consequence whatsoever,” he was quoted as saying.

State and federal agencies, including the Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol, are assisting the town. However, Salinas expressed disappointment with the Biden administration’s lack of action. “I’ll be honest with you, I believe 100 percent he does [bear some responsibility],” Salinas said.

The mayor also criticized the federal government for not reaching out to him or his staff. “Nobody has bothered to call me, anyone in the city staff saying, ‘Hey, this is the federal government. We know what you’re going through. We’re worried about you. This is our plan of action,’” he said.

Salinas called for the enforcement of existing laws. “Please, just enforce the laws that are on the books. We are a nation of laws,” he urged, emphasizing that the situation is unfair to those who have immigrated legally in the past.

Salinas concluded by saying that the situation is “unacceptable.”

“It takes a lot of money and years to do it the right way. And it’s not fair for those people that now we have thousands of people coming in without one single consequence,” he said.

Texas and the Biden administration have had considerable differences over immigration policy for the U.S. southern border with Mexico, which has seen a significant increase in illegal migration since Biden took office. In the first 10 months of fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported nearly 2 million encounters with illegal immigrants at the southwest border. 

According to preliminary data from The Washington Post, a record number of migrants crossed the southern border in August. There were reportedly 177,000 arrests along the Mexico border last month, an increase from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June. U.S. Border Patrol arrested at least 91,000 migrants who entered the country as part of a family group in August. 

A DHS spokesperson told the outlet that the increases are part of “seasonal trends,” and the government has repatriated over 17,000 parents and children who crossed the border as families since May.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra of the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, ruled that the state can’t have a floating barrier on the Rio Grande without permission from the federal government, a victory for the Biden administration that the state has vowed to appeal.

Ezra issued a preliminary injunction ordering Texas to remove a 1,000-foot buoy barrier along the Rio Grande.

In July, under the directive of Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas deployed the buoy barrier to curb illegal entry into the U.S. amid an increase in border crossings in recent years. The U.S. Department of Justice argued that the buoys were installed in violation of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act because they were placed without permission from the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

“Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier. Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters,” wrote Ezra, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan.

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Video: Hundreds of migrants cross into Eagle Pass, Texas, as Democrats are still complaining about 50 illegal immigrants in Martha’s Vineyard


By CHRIS PANDOLFO | September 16, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/illegal-migrants-cross-into-eagle-pass-texas/

While Democrats continue to make hysteric complaints about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sending 50 or so illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, new footage shows many more migrants crossing into the United States in towns near the southwest border.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin is in Eagle Pass, Texas, where he reports “large groups of several hundred migrants” are crossing illegally into the country at numerous locations Friday morning.

\u201cNEW: Good morning from Eagle Pass, TX, where we have groups of several hundred migrants crossing illegally in multiple locations right now, including part of this group which started walking along a local highway. We have seen large groups in 3 locations so far today. @FoxNews\u201d

— Bill Melugin (@Bill Melugin) 1663335006

Melugin shared nighttime drone footage taken early this morning that used thermal imaging to film a group of more than 100 illegal immigrants crossing the border illegally into Eagle Pass.

\u201cNEW: For the very first time this AM while it was still dark, we used our brand new night time drone w/ thermal imaging as a large group of migrants crossed illegally into Eagle Pass. As you\u2019ll see, the group was 100+ in size. Grateful to @FoxNews for getting us this new tool!\u201d

— Bill Melugin (@Bill Melugin) 1663338454

The video shows migrants crossing the Rio Grande river from the Mexican side to enter the United States. A large group can be seen walking in single-file formation.

\u201cMore video from our brand new @FoxNews night flying drone with thermal imaging from early this morning. Within just 2 hours in Eagle Pass, TX this AM, we saw 3 large groups totaling 500+ crossing illegally in three spots.\n450,000+ illegal crossings in this sector so far this year\u201d

— Bill Melugin (@Bill Melugin) 1663341333

Immigration authorities are now reporting the highest-ever daily number of migrants entering the U.S. illegally, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Internal communications from the Department of Homeland Security reportedly show Border Patrol officers are documenting about 8,000 migrant encounters per day.

A CBP spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that “the traffic we are seeing this year is similar to the pattern we saw at this time last year.” Last September, CBP reported an average of about 7,700 migrant encounters per day nationwide.

Immigration authorities have reported nearly 2 million total border encounters since the beginning of this fiscal year.

In an interview last weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris insisted that the U.S. border is secure while stating that the U.S. immigration system is broken. Her comments led to backlash from Republicans, who accused the Biden administration of incentivizing illegal immigration with lax border policies and of failing to provide adequate resources for overwhelmed border towns. GOP governors in Arizona, Florida, and Texas have sought to call attention to the chaos in their states by giving illegal immigrants voluntary transport to sanctuary cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took credit for sending two planes full of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a popular getaway destination for rich, white liberals.

The left had an apoplectic reaction to what DeSantis did. Democratic local officials said the presence of 50 illegal immigrants on the island was a “humanitarian crisis” and slammed DeSantis for not warning they were coming. The White House accused GOP officials of using migrants as “political pawns” and said it was “cruel” to give them a free plane ticket to Martha’s Vineyard. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused DeSantis of “kidnapping” these migrants by misleading them with “false representations that they would be transported to Boston and would receive expedited access to work authorization.”

But none of the migrants were taken to Martha’s Vineyard against their will. And the Biden administration has also flown migrants across the U.S. as they await asylum proceedings because immigration facilities at the southwest border have been overwhelmed by the volume of people entering the country illegally.

The real humanitarian crisis remains at the southwest border, where local morgues are reportedly running out of space as they struggle to keep up with the number of people who drown crossing the Rio Grande river. As the Fox News video shows, the migrant crossings are not stopping, which means more buses and planes are sure to carry illegal immigrants to sanctuary city jurisdictions.

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