The latest twist in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border war with Joe Biden has been over a key crossing point that bans Border Patrol agents, but not golfers.
On Thursday, players in golf carts could be seen enjoying quiet games at the nine-hole course located at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Shelby Park sits along the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande River and was seized by Texas on Jan. 10, after Governor Abbott claimed the Biden administration had not done enough to stop the influx of migrants from nearby Mexico.
That led to Border Patrol agents, who are employees of the federal government, being prohibited from patrolling the park, which is the second-busiest border crossing in the United States, behind Lukeville in Arizona.
Biden administration officials have since demanded that Texas relinquish control of the 2.5-mile stretch of city-owned land by Friday.
But the high-stakes drama appeared to have had little to no impact on those enjoying a round of golf Thursday night.
Golfers were allowed into the fenced Shelby Park despite a standoff between federal Border Patrol agents and Texas state troopers in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Border Patrol agents cannot enter this same area where golfers enjoyed sunny weather Thursday afternoon.
Despite miles of fencing and barbed wire in Shelby Park, ordinary citizens were still able to enter the property.
Border Patrol agents, federal agents who report to the Biden Administration and are tasked with arresting migrants and securing the border, were expelled.
“It’s a powder keg,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents Eagle Pass, told Fox News.
‘I am on the governor’s side. There are Americans who support Texas and say, ‘Hey, we have to hold on, we have to make sure that those who come here illegally have some repercussions from this.’
For years, golfers and Border Patrol agents have coexisted on the course, showing the complex reality of border cities, where migrants crawl through barbed wire that tears their flesh, just meters from where Americans practice. this elegant sport.
Since 2021, Texas communities on the border have seen nearly 4 million migrants, according to federal statistics, cross the border, many of them risking their lives to reach the United States.
A group of Venezuelans wore cardboard on their backs to avoid being cut as they crawled under a barbed wire barrier set up to prevent migrants from entering El Paso, Texas.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States gather near barbed wire set up to prevent migrants from crossing into the United States, as they seek to be processed by the US Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico , on January 23. 2024
Clara Morales and her daughter Yuridia, migrants from Guatemala seeking asylum in the U.S., hug in front of barbed wire installed to prevent migrants from crossing into the U.S., seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
In Eagle Pass and other migrant hotspots in the Lone Star State, authorities have strung miles of concertina and barbed wire in an attempt to deal with the border crisis.
But that hasn’t stopped them at all.
Instead, migrants have chosen to climb, crawl under and drag themselves, and sometimes babies and children, across the dangerous wire, for a chance to surrender to Border Patrol agents and request asylum. .
By law, immigrants seeking asylum must be given the opportunity to present their case in court, a process that can take years.
Meanwhile, asylum seekers are released into the United States while they await their court dates, even if they entered the country illegally.
Relentless waves of immigrants have taken their toll on Eagle Pass, a city of only 28,000 residents.
Texas took control of Shelby Park (pictured above) on January 10. Since then, Border Patrol agents have been blocked from all access to the park.
The Supreme Court did not rule that the chain-link fence Texas deployed was illegal. The high court only said that federal agents could cut it or move it if they needed to.
Texas has placed barbed wire at Shelby Park in the Eagle Pass, Texas, migrant hotspot for more than a year.
In one week last month, 22,000 migrants crossed the river that separates the United States from Mexico toward Eagle Pass.
Now, the municipal park in Eagle Pass, Texas, is at the center of a political and legal battle over whether Texas can decide on its own that the federal government is not doing enough to secure the border.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents can cut Texas razor wire if they deem it necessary.
The Biden Administration called on Texas to resign, but Abbott responded by claiming that Texas is being overrun by immigrants.
The governor also added that his state has the authority to defy federal law because the federal government has failed in its duty to its state by failing to stop the influx of immigrants.
“There is no support in our history, no support found in other materials for the idea that states can decide for themselves that they are under invasion,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. PBS.
‘For better or worse, in our constitutional system, federal law supersedes state law, even when we don’t like how the federal government does or does not enforce those federal laws. The remedies for those disagreements are not to allow each state to act on its own and have its own policies.