Texas National Guard ‘seizes control’ of border and blocks Border Patrol from area

The Justice Department is suing Governor Greg Abbott, claiming that immigration enforcement is the purview of the federal government alone

Republican Governor Greg Abbott has seized a city park on the US-Mexico border and has reportedly directed the Texas National Guard to impede federal agents patrolling the area.

The guardsmen were directed to block US Border Patrol agents from patrolling near the border town of Eagle Pass, according to CBS News.

The town is where border agents typically first encounter migrants crossing into the US over the Rio Grande, according to agency officials.

Guardsmen took over a public park in Eagle Pass where migrants who are caught crossing the border illegally are detained by the US Border Patrol. They then refused to allow federal border agents in to the park.

It's not the first time Mr Abbott has used the state's National Guard to harass the federal government. On Thursday, Texas state officials prevented a Border Patrol boat from patrolling in the same region, according to a source familiar with the situation.

"They are denying entry to Border Patrol agents to conduct our duties," the official told CBS News. They said they did not know "what authority [Texas officials] have over the federal government."

The Justice Department filed a complaint with the US Supreme Court following Mr Abbott's decision.

"Texas's new actions demonstrate an escalation of the State's measures to block Border Patrol's ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies," the Justice Department said in the filing.

Eagle Pass residents were reportedly frustrated by the invasion.

"They tell me that the mission is to prevent undocumented people from crossing into Eagle Pass," Mayor Rolando Salinas said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. "That is not a decision that we agreed to. This is not something that we wanted. This is not something that we asked for as a city."

This is not the first time Mr Abbott has seized the city's park; it originally served as a central operating site for his Operation Lone Star, a controversial undertaking by Mr Abbott to use the state's resources and guardsmen to aggressively police the border.

Four guardsmen participating in the patrols have died by suicide, and a scathing report in the Army Times highlighted complaints that living conditions at operation sites are deplorable.

The Justice Department is suing Mr Abbott over the mission, claiming that a "floating wall" erected in the Rio Grande under Operation Lone Star is a safety and environmental hazard, and that immigration enforcement falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not the state.

Mr Abbott was initially able to seize the park after the Texas Department of Public Safety directed Mr Salinas to claim it as his private property. This allowed Mr Abbott to use the park for his own purposes without approval from the city or using eminent domain seizure, according to Texas Public Radio.

In August, the Eagle Pass City Council voted to rescind Mr Salinas' affidavit claiming the park as private property, which put it back in the hands of the public. That has apparently not stopped Mr Abbot from seizing it for his own purposes.

"We strongly condemn the governor's border stunt and call on him to reverse his decision and to respect the rule of law, human rights, and cross-border cooperation," the Eagle Pass Border Coalition said in a statement.

Mr Abbott's forces have reportedly closed off a major public parking lot as part of its seizure, blocking residents from spaces they typically would use to access downtown restaurants and retailers, a major fleamarket, and a border crossing.

"In the entire time I've lived here, this has never been shut. This is the parking which services all of downtown. This is the parking that people come to when they go to the flea market. This is the parking that people go to when they go to the ballpark. This is the parking when you want to go across the border," Eagle Pass resident Amerika Garcia-Grewal told TPR. "It doesn't make any sense. It's like all of the governor's border policies are for show and not any actual effect."