AUSTIN, Texas — Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district runs along the state’s border with Mexico, said blame for the deaths of three immigrants who perished while crossing the border lies solely on the shoulders of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX).
Cuellar, who has been a strong critic of the Biden administration’s border policies for three years, lambasted Abbott for locking out all federal Border Patrol agents from a 2.5-mile strip in Eagle Pass, Texas, where a woman and two children drowned late Friday. The drownings occurred just hours after the Justice Department issued a warning in court that Abbott’s actions would prevent federal law enforcement from responding to emergencies.
“This is a tragedy, and the state bears responsibility,” Cuellar said in a statement sent to the Washington Examiner on Saturday afternoon.
Around 9 p.m. CT Friday, a group of six immigrants attempted to wade across the river from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, into Eagle Pass when they went into distress, according to Cuellar’s office.
Border Patrol agents in the area were aware of the immigrants in distress despite being fenced out from the area since Wednesday, and agents tried to contact the Texas officials inside the fenced area to alert state authorities.
When agents could not reach the Texas Military Department, the Texas National Guard, or the Texas Department of Public Safety command post by phone, they went to a vehicle entry point outside Shelby Park, where Abbott had seized city land and kicked out federal employees this week.
“However, Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants, even in the event of an emergency, and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar was notified Saturday morning that three of the six had drowned and that Mexican authorities on the border had recovered the bodies.
A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed the incident in a statement sent following publication.
“Tragically, a woman and two children drowned last night in the Shelby Park area of Eagle Pass, which was commandeered by the State of Texas earlier this week,” the DHS official wrote in an email. “In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area. The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks. The State of Texas should stop interfering with the U.S. Border Patrol’s enforcement of U.S. law.”
A spokesperson for DHS agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it was “gravely concerned by actions that prevent the U.S. Border Patrol from performing their essential missions of arresting individuals who enter the United States unlawfully and providing humanitarian response to individuals in need.”
Fellow Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) of San Antonio also has blamed Abbott for the drownings.
“Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents from doing their job and allowed two children to drown in the Rio Grande,” Castro said in a statement Saturday. “Governor Abbott’s inhumanity has no limit. Everyone who enables his cruelty has blood on their hands.”
Texas has seized city land in a move that Eagle Pass leaders described as an unforeseen takeover as Abbott attempts to fence out all federal police from the international boundary, where state personnel are turning back illegal immigrants undeterred by Border Patrol.
In a series of events that unfolded quietly and as a shock to three federal agents in Eagle Pass who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Friday morning, the state moved in late Wednesday and Thursday and sealed off city park land and a city-owned golf course from federal employees, including law enforcement.
The Biden administration took immediate action, with the Justice Department filing a memo early Friday asking the Supreme Court to weigh in. DOJ officials said that hours after it had filed a separate memo Wednesday evening, Texas began to seize control of Eagle Pass as the state and federal governments battle over whether Border Patrol may cut through state-installed concertina wire.
The city land seizure was intended to block federal agents, therefore allowing state officials to turn away illegal immigrants and not allow those who cross to be arrested and likely released into the United States.
“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,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the Friday memo.
Photos taken by the DOJ and included in the memo show Texas National Guard members guarding entrances to the land where Border Patrol agents would normally pass through to apprehend immigrants who come across the Rio Grande and onto the riverbank.
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Abbott’s office declined to comment and referred the Washington Examiner to the Texas Military Department. The Texas DPS also referred requests to the Texas Military Department.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
