By Kimberly James; WBAP and KLIF News, Dallas, Texas.
AUSTIN – (WBAP/KLIF)- Federal officials and Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar says National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott refused to allow Border Patrol agents to enter Shelby Park, in the city of Eagle Pass and on the banks of the Rio Grande, to help render aid to migrants reported in distress in the river. Texas denies the allegations.
Cuellar says six migrants were exhibiting signs of distress in the Rio Grande near the park, but federal agents had no success trying to contact Texas state officials about the emergency by phone, and when Border Patrol agents physically went to the park to ask to be allowed to aid the migrants, Cuellar says they were denied entry.
Later, the bodies of an apparent migrant woman, her 8 year old daughter and 10 year old son were found drowned.
Late last week, Texas National Guard soliders seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass. Border Patrol had been using the park to hold and process migrants. The closure marks another escalation in intensifying legal feud between Governor Abbott and President Biden over federal border policy. The federal government has sent notice to the state of Texas warning it has until Wednesday to stop the Border Patrol from it’s business concerning migrants in the park; that is, stopping the blocking of agents processing the migrants.
White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández says Texas soldiers “blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” to the migrants. “While we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear: Governor Abbott’s political stunts are cruel, inhumane, and dangerous.”
The Texas Military Department oversees the state National Guard, and confirms it was contacted Friday night by the Border Patrol “in reference to a migrant distress situation”. Texas Military Department says one of it’s units actively searched the river with lights and night vision goggles, but found no migrants in distress or bodies.
As the federal government tries to stop Texas from implementing several migrant-blocking actions, including Texas Senate Bill 4, allowing any police officer in the state of Texas to arrest anyone suspected of entering the country illegally, and judges to order deported those persons, the federal government is filing legal actions maintaining all immigration concerns are the sole right and responsibility of the federal government. Of several concerns, one raised by federal officials in a filing before the Supreme Court was the state of Texas actions would prevent Border Patrol from helping migrants in distress.
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