Texas responded to the Biden administration on Wednesday, informing the Department of Homeland Security that the Lone Star State will not comply with a demand letter insisting that the state allow federal border authorities into Shelby Park, a hotbed of crossings. illegal border crossings.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott took control of Eagle Pass Park last week, erecting fences to keep out citizens and federal border agents as part of his emergency declaration to combat the immigration crisis.
“Because the facts and the law are on Texas’ side, the State will continue to use its constitutional authority to defend its territory, and I will continue to defend those legal efforts in court,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a letter to DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer. .
“The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should stop wasting time and scarce resources suing Texas and start enforcing the immigration laws that Congress already has in place,” he added.
Members of the Texas National Guard stand behind a gate at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on January 13, 2024. Adam Davis/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock A newly installed Texas National Guard patrol station is located lies behind new barbed wire and concertina wire at Shelby Park, on the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, January 16, 2024. REUTERS
Paxton’s rebuttal follows a Jan. 14 cease-and-desist notice sent by the Biden administration demanding that the state stop preventing U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing the approximately two and a half miles of the US-Mexico border along Shelby Park. which borders the Rio Grande.
“Your letter misrepresents both the facts and the law by demanding that Texas surrender to President Biden’s open border policies,” Paxton charges, adding that the letter “demonstrates a lack of understanding on the ground of what is happening in Shelby Park. “
The White House and DHS on Saturday accused Texas officials of preventing Border Patrol agents from attempting to provide emergency assistance to three migrants, a woman and two children, who drowned near Shelby Park the night before.
National Guard soldiers stand guard on the banks of the Rio Grande River at Shelby Park on Jan. 12, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. fake images
However, the Biden administration has since admitted that the three migrants died at least an hour before the Border Patrol sought access to the park.
The Justice Department said in a Supreme Court filing on Tuesday that Mexican officials notified the Border Patrol at 9 p.m. local time that the migrants had drowned at 8 p.m., but that two more migrants were “in danger.” on the US side of the Rio Grande. .
The two migrants were rescued by Mexican officials and were found to be suffering from hypothermia.
The Justice Department argued that federal agents could have been able to detect the drowning migrants if they had access to the park.
A National Guard soldier stands guard at the gate of Shelby Park, which is now used as an operations center in Eagle Pass, Texas, January 17, 2024. REUTERS
“It is impossible to say what would have happened if the Border Patrol had had its previous access to the area, including through its surveillance trucks that helped monitor the area,” the document says. “However, at a minimum, the Border Patrol would have had the opportunity to take all available measures to fulfill its responsibilities and assist its Mexican government counterparts in undertaking the rescue mission. “Texas made that impossible.”
In his letter, Paxton called it “vile” and “completely inaccurate” to blame Texas for the tragic deaths.
“Contrary to your letter, [the Texas Military Department] “It did not prevent the United States Border Patrol from entering Shelby Park to attempt a water rescue of migrants in distress,” the attorney general wrote. “The federal agents at the gate didn’t even have a boat and didn’t request entry because of any medical requirement.”
A concertina wire, placed by the Texas National Guard, is installed around the perimeter of a moat formerly used to hold immigrants at Shelby Park on the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, Jan. 16, 2024. REUTERS
“Instead, federal agents told the TMD sergeant that Mexican officials had already recovered the bodies and that the situation was under control,” he added. “However, Texas guards did a diligent search, only to confirm that Mexican officials had recovered the bodies of the migrants, downstream from the Shelby Park boat ramp and on their side of the river.”
The governor of Texas also weighed in Wednesday, tweeting that “Biden was clearly wrong to blame Texas for the deaths in the Rio Grande.”
“As a federal judge has already ruled, Biden and DHS ‘create a perverse incentive’ for migrants to make dangerous illegal crossings,” Abbott added. “Biden is to blame for the drownings.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn