Texas state troopers arrested 15 migrants near Eagle Pass for criminal trespassing earlier this week. The show of force comes as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues to pressure the federal government over border security.
Texas DPS posted images on X of the individuals, who came from El Salvador and Nicaragua. Each faces up to one year in jail if convicted of criminally trespassing in Shelby Park. The park recently saw a confrontation between Texas DPS and federal border agents, according to reporting by The Dallas Express.
Abbott signed Senate Bill 4 in December along with two other pieces of legislation in a bid to defend the southern border from what the governor described as an “invasion” of unlawful border-crossers. SB 4 makes it a state crime for people to cross the border between ports of entry and will allow the state to deport individuals for trespassing. The law is scheduled to be enacted in early March.
Abbott has said that the Constitution permits states to repel invasions when the federal government fails to do so.
“That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border,” wrote Abbott in a statement earlier this year, as reported by The Dallas Express.
In January, the situation at Eagle Pass led to a tense standoff when Texas DPS prevented Border Patrol from accessing Shelby Park, an area that was a hot spot for unlawful entry at the time. In response to Texas’ actions, the Biden administration has appealed to the Supreme Court.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel Jonathan Meyer recently wrote a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton calling on Texas to stand down and allow Border Patrol access to the park.
“Texas’s failure to provide access to the border persists even in instances of imminent danger to life and safety,” the letter read. “Texas has demonstrated that even in the most exigent circumstances, it will not allow Border Patrol access to the border to conduct law enforcement and emergency response activities.”
Several lawsuits are currently pending that aim to shut down Abbott’s efforts, including federal challenges to the newly passed law allowing any law enforcement officer in the state to arrest unlawful migrants. Texas recently lost a Supreme Court decision regarding the state’s right to install razor wire along the border, but Abbott has remained steadfast in his assertion that Texas is within its rights to secure the border.
Meanwhile, CBS reported that the number of migrants unlawfully entering from Mexico to Texas has dropped significantly in recent weeks. Unlawful migrants are being seen in larger numbers crossing into California and Arizona rather than into Texas.
The Biden administration proffered that the changing migration patterns are the result of efforts put forth by the Mexican government after a meeting last month, per CBS.
Valeria Wheeler, the director of a migrant shelter in Eagle Pass, agreed with that assertion. She claimed the number of unlawful migrants coming to the shelter dropped sharply at the beginning of the year before Texas seized control of Shelby Park the second week of January.
“The Mexican government has made it very difficult for migrants to come to the border in this area,” she said, per CBS.
Abbott recently said that crossings into Shelby Park had gone from several thousand a day down to just three. He credits the barriers installed along the border with the reduction in unlawful migrants entering Texas.
