The Deadly Consequences of Playing Politics
Immigration has always been Donald Trump’s most compelling issue. It was a major factor in his Iowa victory last night and is his best hope for returning to the presidency. Many Republican officeholders and office seekers recognize this and follow Trump’s lead.
Some more than others.
Consider this quote from Texas Governor Greg Abbott on January 5: “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.” Since then, things have gotten even more heated, if you can believe it.
The following Wednesday, Abbott signed an emergency order taking control of a city park in Eagle Pass, the epicenter of a political fight between the state of Texas and the Biden administration over immigration. Shelby Park is a 50-acre plot that includes two and a half miles of the border on the Rio Grande and is a popular crossing point for migrants. The park is named for Confederate General Joseph Shelby, who, ironically, fled to Mexico after the Civil War. To the surprise of Eagle Pass city officials, the Texas Military Department has closed the park “indefinitely.” It is now fenced off, including the riverfront.
That same day, January 10, the Department of Justice filed suit to block the emergency order, because the Texas State Police and National Guard were barring federal Border Patrol agents from entering the park and accessing a section of the border. Yes, you read that right: Texas authorities are stopping federal officers from accessing a national border. The U.S. Border Patrol uses the Shelby Park boat launch to patrol the river and as a staging area for detained migrants.
In case there was any confusion as to the reason for the park’s seizure, Abbott made it clear Friday. “We are not allowing Border Patrol on that property anymore. We said, ‘We’ve had it. We’re not going to let this happen anymore.’”
The emergency order was tested almost immediately. Friday night, Mexican authorities called Border Patrol to say that six migrants were in distress in the river near Eagle Pass. Border Patrol agents say that when they called the Texas Military Department, the Texas National Guard, and the Department of Public Safety to ask for access to Shelby Park so they could search for the distressed people, they got no answer. So they went to the entrance of the park in person. They were denied entry but were told that state authorities would investigate. The TMD claims they searched using lights and night vision goggles but couldn’t find anyone.
Later that night, the Biden administration filed a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court stating federal agents were barred from Shelby Park by state agents. In response, Texas told the Supreme Court they are “working promptly” to ensure Border Patrol has access to Shelby Park.
Early Saturday morning, the Mexican National Guard recovered the bodies of a woman and two children from the area. In reaction to the deaths, Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar said, “This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility.”
By Sunday, the Texas Military Department had changed its story, saying that by the time they were contacted by Border Patrol, the three migrants were already dead. Abbott, never one to miss an opportunity to politicize tragedy, posted on X: “When BP requested access to the river the drownings had already occurred & found in MX. The fact is the deaths are b/c of Biden’s Open Border magnet.”
Eagle Pass is an unremarkable city of 30,000 on the dusty plains of South Texas. As unremarkable as the sliver of the Rio Grande that divides it and Piedras Negras, its sister city on the Mexican side of the river. But Republican politicians in Washington, D.C., and Austin have chosen this as ground zero for their full-throttle assault on President Biden’s version of immigration reform. One can argue that Biden has left himself vulnerable on this issue by moving too slowly and too ineffectively. But that’s another part of the story to be dealt with on another day.
Suffice to say, for purposes of this writing, Republicans are determined to take this issue and beat Biden like a rented mule with it. Earlier this month, 60 GOP representatives showed up in Eagle Pass to campaign for Trump-era border policies. What happens in little Eagle Pass has suddenly become critically important to the presidential election, to the fight over the federal budget, and even to funding for Ukraine and Israel.
And now a governor eager for promotion to national office himself has stepped in to do what he believes will boost his resume: challenge the very existence of the federal government’s authority to protect the border.
How can this end well?
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Other than Native Americans we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants. The cruelty and ignorance to reject people fleeing persecution is astonishing..
I have said it before and will say it again. Gov. Abbott should be charged with human trafficking under federal statutes. TMD should be held responsible for the deaths of those people in Eagle Pass. The Republicans can spin this all they want. They and they ALONE are responsible for this immigration and border control fiasco.