Biden administration asks Supreme Court to stop Texas from blocking border agent patrols

McALLEN, Texas —  The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday to order Texas to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border where large numbers of migrants have crossed in recent months, a move that sets up another showdown between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over immigration enforcement.

The request comes after Texas put up fencing to take control of a nearly 50-acre public park along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, a crossing point for thousands of migrants who entered the U.S. from Mexico last year.

A similar power struggle played out in the same area more than a year ago, but the area Texas closed off this week prevents federal agents from accessing a larger and more visible crossing spot.

Along one stretch, armed Texas National Guard members and their vehicles are preventing U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing the river, the Justice Department said in court filing. The Texas National Guard also allegedly used a military Humvee to keep Border Patrol agents off an access road.

“Because Border Patrol can no longer access or view this stretch of the border, Texas has effectively prevented Border Patrol from monitoring the border,” the Justice Department wrote in a filing.

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The governor told reporters Friday that Texas has the authority to control access to any geographic location in the state.

“That authority is being asserted,” Abbott said.

The closure of Shelby Park was an escalation of the Republican governor’s border enforcement efforts, known as Operation Lone Star. The state and federal government are involved in multiple legal disputes over actions Texas began taking last year, including using buoys to block the middle of the international river, installing razor wire, and passing a law that will soon allow local and state police to arrest migrants suspected of entering illegally.

Abbott defended closing off the park as he faced backlash from Democrats for telling conservative radio host Dana Loesch last week that Texas had done everything to curb illegal crossings short of shooting people. Loesch had asked Abbott how far Texas could go on the border before facing arrest himself.

“The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” the governor said as he discussed a New York City lawsuit against charter bus companies that he has used to transport migrants from Texas.

Mexico’s foreign relations secretary denounced the comments, saying they could lead to violence and are dehumanizing to migrants.

On Friday, Abbott said he was merely making a distinction between what Texas can and cannot do on the border.

“I was asked to point out where the line is drawn about what would be illegal, and I pointed out something that is obviously illegal,” he said.

Texas notified Eagle Pass officials on Wednesday that the state Department of Public Safety would be closing public access to the park along the Rio Grande.

Concern grew when the Border Patrol noted that it, too, was losing access to the park, where agents launch boats into the river. The area has also served as a staging area where federal officers would take asylum seekers and other migrants into custody and process them.

The Border Patrol’s access to the site for surveillance was similarly curtailed. The Justice Department’s emergency request to the Supreme Court says agents no longer have access to a 2.5-mile stretch of the border in the area. The filing was made as part of the U.S. government’s lawsuit over the concertina wire the state installed along roughly 30 miles near Eagle Pass.

The union for Border Patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council, praised Abbott’s latest move.

“By taking control of an area where so many illegal aliens are simply surrendering, he’s freeing up BP agents to patrol areas with high numbers of illegal aliens who attempt to escape arrest,” the union said on the social media site X.

In 2022, a Texas pecan farm got caught in a similar dispute between Abbott and the Democratic administration when the state’s Department of Public Safety moved in without the farm owner’s consent and revoked a lease between the owner and the U.S. Border Patrol.

The state’s policies have been called into question not only by outside critics but internally, including when a state trooper’s account of denying water and urgent medical care to migrants made headlines in July.

Associated Press reporter Acacia Coronado contributed from Austin, Texas.