Eagle Pass, ground zero of the confrontation in the United States for control of the border with Mexico

In 1865, Confederate General John Shelby threw his flag into the waters of the Rio Grande, in the small border town of Eagle Pass, and crossed into Mexico to take refuge, rather than admit the defeat of his troops. Today Eagle Pass has become the epicenter of a tough battle, with constitutional implications, that pits the federal government against that of Texas for immigration control; to National Guard soldiers with the Border Patrol; to the Republicans with the Democrats. And all these clashes come together at one point: in the 19-hectare park on the banks of the Rio Grande that honors the secessionist military man and is named after him.

Shelby Park used to be a place where residents of Eagle Pass, a town of 28,000 inhabitants that votes Democratic, lives off trade with Mexico – two bridges connect it to Piedras Negras – and where Spanish is spoken as much or more than English. , they came to fish, to gather for picnics and celebrations or to walk. This weekend, a poster announces a concert for February 28, half musical, half religious preaching, by the association led by the late pastor Billy Graham, spiritual advisor to several presidents. As things stand, it is difficult to celebrate.

Barbed wire and a wall of containers close access to the river. The entrances from the street are fenced and blocked by military vehicles. National Guard soldiers, armed with machine guns, control access and the only ramp for boats and kayaks to the river. Residents cannot access; And by order of the Texas governor, Republican Gregg Abbott, Border Patrol agents, who until last month used those lands as a point to process the arrivals of immigrants crossing the river, can no longer do so either. This decision has canceled the collaboration between both bodies that had been common.

“And all this catches us in the middle,” sighs Juan Hernández, who runs a clothing and footwear store a few hundred meters away. The blockade of the park has turned that area – until recently very busy due to its proximity to Shelby and the border post – into an almost ghost area, where this weekend there were more local police officers and their vehicles than civilian traffic. “This is harming our economy,” laments the merchant, who announces drastic discounts to sell the merchandise. “But what scares us more is that there could be an incident where someone loses control.”

The current confrontation broke out last month, when Abbott gave the order to the National Guard to take control of Shelby Park, after the number of entries of irregular immigrants into those lands skyrocketed in December. President Joe Biden's Administration appealed to the courts against that decision, arguing that it prevented the Border Patrol, under federal control, from doing its job. In mid-January, barbed wire fences and other obstacles prevented these agents from rescuing a family of three migrants who ended up drowning, the Government alleges.

The Supreme Court agreed with him and ordered that the barbed wire fences be removed. But the governor has interpreted the ruling in the most limited way possible: that border agents may cut it to help a migrant in danger. But in the meantime, he promises to reinforce the fences and wires. His argument: that the federal government's policy favors migrants to the point of endangering Texas, and the State has the right to defend itself against what it defines as an “invasion.”

The case has generated a political confrontation that goes beyond the mere clash between a central government and a state government. Other states, such as Florida, have sent soldiers from their own National Guard to reinforce the Texas one. This weekend, a caravan of vehicles of supporters of Republican candidate Donald Trump arrived near Eagle Pass after traveling halfway across the country to express their support for anti-immigration policies. Abbott himself appeared this Sunday in Eagle Pass to defend his policies in a press conference along with 14 of the 25 Republican governors who have expressed their support for him. Something that caused discomfort among part of the population.

“As a longtime resident, I have never been more upset with a leader than with our governor, and what he is doing, and how he is using our community in particular for political theater,” retired businessman and educator Jesse Fuentes declared Friday in a press conference of community leaders. “They have appropriated a public park, our park, our history, our culture. This is where we gather, it's our green space, where we are connected to the river, and now we don't have access to it. And if you take a walk and look, you can see that it is becoming a military base.”

Others in Texas think otherwise. “We are here to support this cause and Governor Abbott. We believe he is doing the right thing. We have to regain control of our borders. We don't have to let millions of migrants come. When we go to vote in November, immigration will be our top priority. The second, the right to bear arms,” say David and Sandy, a couple who drove three hours to arrive this Saturday to participate in the rally to welcome the Trumpists' anti-immigrant caravan.

That day, the Mission: Border Hope immigrant shelter temporarily closed its doors. It had moved its occupants to other places due to fear of possible incidents. The transfer was not difficult: it only accommodated a handful of people. The arrivals of migrants in search of help, once the Border Patrol has released them with a summons to appear in a court to decide on their asylum applications, reached 1,200 a day, and currently only around the twenties A decrease in line with the drop in irregular entries recorded in January, which Abbott attributes to its harshness and the federal government and NGOs, to typical oscillations of the season.

Abbott's resistance comes while in Washington a group of Republican and Democratic senators have agreed on a bill that would reform the current immigration system to introduce tougher control measures. Among other things, they would give Biden the authority to “close the border,” as he himself has declared, if detections of irregular migrants exceed 8,500 in a single day, or reach an average of 5,000 daily in a week. The measure would also make it more difficult to apply for asylum in the United States, the reason most migrants who arrive irregularly enter this country.

But the success of that bill remains to be seen. In the Senate he needs the “yes” of nine Republicans. In an election year, Republican lawmakers are reluctant to approve anything that could be construed as a success for Biden. Donald Trump, the former Republican president who aspires to return to the White House in November, opposes the measure, while he intends to make migration the main issue of the electoral campaign. The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has already assured that the senators' proposal is “stillborn” in this forum. Republicans in the Lower House have undertaken the process to try to open an impeachment trial against the Secretary of Homeland Security and head of immigration policy, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The conversations continue. And diplomatic negotiations are intensifying. This Saturday, Bide
n spoke by phone with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to discuss migration and “the shared challenges on the common border,” according to the White House in a statement. The dialogue, in which the American thanked his counterpart for “operational support and taking concrete steps to prevent irregular migration, while expanding legal channels,” took place after representatives of both governments met. in Mexico and Washington in the last two months to delve deeper into this matter.

Meanwhile, Eagle Pass residents hope the standoff between the federal and state governments will be resolved as soon as possible. “We would like to continue with our lives,” Juan Hernández half smiles, while he urges his clientele to take advantage of the sales at his store.

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