There is a daily struggle going on along the Rio Grande River but it may not be the one you are thinking about. It’s not the usual struggle between Border Patrol agents and migrants crossing the border illegally. It a battle between the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Border Patrol.
Illegal immigration is a federal responsibility. However, we know that Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas have created a border crisis that this country has never seen before, thanks to the administration’s neglect. Millions of illegal aliens are living in the United States now that were not before Joe Biden was inaugurated.
Border states have been left to fend for themselves. Biden refuses to close the border so it is up to border states to manage the crisis. Texas taxpayers, for example, are on the hook to the tune of several billion dollars to provide the migrants with the services they need and for the state to secure the border. Those services include shelter, food, medical care, and school for children.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021. Other red state governors have answered the call from Abbott and sent National Guard troops and equipment to help secure the border. Texas DPS officers work on the border alongside Border Patrol and instead of working together, they often work against each other. They are caught up on a bizarre situation not of their making.
Border Patrol (DHS) is leasing strips of land along the riverfront from farmers and ranchers who own property along the river. They pitch a tent and use it as a place to do administrative work processing migrants as they are apprehended crossing the Rio Grande River. Then most are turned out and allowed to remain in the United States until it is time for their asylum hearing, often up to six years out. This directly conflicts with what DPS is trying to do, which is to stop migrants from crossing into Texas.
For example, ranch owners Hugo and Magaly Urbina rented out a strip of their property to Border Patrol. They own a remote, private pecan farm in Eagle Pass, Texas. There is a white tent on their property that is used by Border Patrol to process migrants who are apprehended. The ranch is the scene of a daily struggle between Joe Biden and Governor Abbott, a struggle between DHS and DPS. From the tent, Border Patrol transports them to a nearby migrant facility.
Outside the property’s fence, between the river and the farm, Texas DPS authorities stand guard.
‘It seems that [U.S. Border Patrol is] letting [migrants] in and we’re doing our part in order to keep them out,’ DPS Highway Patrol Sgt. Rene Cordova explains to me.
Sgt. Cordova shows me fortifications they’ve built to stop migrants from crossing onto the Urbinas’ farm, but Border Patrol tore down a section of the chain link fence.
It also wasn’t helpful to Texas that the Urbinas – who leased a long stretch of their riverfront to the Border Patrol at expense to the U.S. taxpayer – dug a walkway ramp down to the river to make the steep bank more accessible.
Governor Abbott’s response to the pecan farm facility is exactly what you would expect.
He sent state troopers to occupy the Urbinas’ land on the grounds that criminal activity was taking place.
Texas then bulldozed the river ramp, strung rows of barbed wire across it and planted a large sign that threatens a fine and reads: ‘You cannot pass here’.
Now migrants walk along the border while looking for an open spot.
Border Patrol agents are not permitted to speak to the press but some agents told a reporter with the Daily Mail that they hate escorting an illegal migrant into the country but they are following orders. The migrants know what to do to get into the country. And, they admit they are coming for jobs, which is not a legal reason for asylum under current immigration laws.
One young, dripping wet Venezuelan man confirmed it all to me.
‘They [Texas Department of Public Safety officers] won’t let us pass,’ he says.
So, his group will walk several hundred yards upriver to a spot where they heard the green uniformed ‘American immigracion’ officers might be found.
‘Over there, Border Patrol will take you so we can try and get asylum because we’re poor and we’re wanting a better life,’ he says, squishing away in soggy sneakers.
The only way to end this struggle is to get a new president in the White House. Biden has made it clear he will not change course. He deliberately created the border crisis which is a national security crisis, as well as a humanitarian crisis. He doesn’t care. Meanwhile, border state governors do what they can to protect their states.
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