Gov. Greg Abbott points to a reporter during a press conference on May 27, 2022.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott railed against a Democratic congressman that Abbott says "forgot to get the facts," about the drowning death of a migrant woman and two children in the Rio Grande Friday night. Abbott said the three were already dead when Texas authorities stopped Border Patrol from rendering help, and that the real blame lies with President Joe Biden.
The dispute is the latest development in the battle between Abbott and the Biden administration over authority at the U.S.-Mexico border. Abbott's "Operation Lone Star" initiative has included increased funding for border security efforts, the installation of razor wire at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the creation of a barrier of floating buoys in the Rio Grande. However, the federal government has argued that it retains the sole authority to set immigration policies and that Texas' interference will make things less safe overall.
According to a statement released by Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, (TX-28) Border Patrol officers received a distress report Friday night as six migrants attempted to cross the Rio Grande near the 47-acre stretch at Eagle Pass' Shelby Park. Border Patrol agents "were unsuccessful" in relaying the information to Texas authorities by phone, and when those agents made physical contact with the Texas Military Department, the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to allow them to assist, the state authorities refused to allow them access to provide assistance, the statement said.
According to Cuellar, "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 that Border Patrol personnel had been forced out of Shelby Park earlier in the week by the Texas National Guard and that the state bears responsibility for the tragic death of the three migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security has likewise called Texas' actions at the border Friday "cruel, dangerous, and inhumane."
Abbott, however, said that the real blame lies with President Joe Biden and that the migrants had already been dead by the time Border Patrol agents tried to help.
"Turns out @RepCuellar (& some media) were so eager to point finger at Texas for drowning of migrants they forgot to get the facts. When BP requested access to river the drownings had already occurred & found in MX. The fact is the deaths are b/c of Biden's Open Border magnet," Abbott posted online.
The Biden administration filed suit against Abbott in early January challenging a new Texas law that allows its police to arrest and prosecute illegal border crossers. In a filing before the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security accused the Texas National Guard of blocking Customs and Border Patrol workers from viewing and accessing key points along a stretch of the Texas-Mexico border along the Rio Grande, where migrants have been known to cross.
Despite Abbott's assertion that Border Patrol would have been too late to help in any event, he has a robust history of bragging about Texas' aggressive efforts to curtail illegal border crossings. In a Jan. 5 radio interview with Dana Loesch, spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, Abbott said Texas was "using every tool that can be used, from building a border wall to building these border barriers," and remarked, "The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder."
Litigation about the authority to make policy at the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court has considered states' rights to make immigration laws in the past but concluded as recently as 2012 that state efforts to set immigration policy conflicts with federal authority.
Law&Crime's Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.