Recently, there has been a growing feud between federal authorities and Texas. To start, on January 10, Texas authorities blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents from a large area of land after a sudden increase of migrant crossings. Consequently, on January 12, a mother and two children drowned after the Texas Military Departments did not give Border Patrol access to the area. This has caused more dispute between Texas and U.S. officials since they now blame each other for this tragedy, and whether or not Texas blocking the migrant crossings was the cause of the three deaths.
The Biden administration wrote on the Supreme Court filing that they found “two migrants in distress,“ around the Shelby Park boat ramp. Shelby park was a part of the 2.5 miles of the US-Mexico border that Texas had blocked off and was also around the same area where the drownings had taken place.
There were claims in the filing to the Supreme Court that many believe that if Texas had not blocked the border and Border Patrol had its normal access to the area, then those fatalities and injuries could have been prevented or resulted in a less detrimental outcome. The Border Patrol had tried to help but were not allowed into the area even though they made sure to tell the guardsmen that were supervising that it was an absolute emergency.
“Texas officials blocked US Border Patrol agents from doing their job and allowed two children to drown,” Democratic US Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas said.
However, Texas claims that the drowning had already occurred before the Border Patrol even had requested access to the site. Texas and the federal authorities have encountered many disagreements lately, which has caused this feud between them. Texas’ new policies had included putting razor wire along the border, which is 29 miles long, as well as making it a state crime to enter Texas illegally. Border Patrol agents then removed the wire which then resulted in Texas suing the federal government for that action. They also asked that they don’t remove the wire until the legal disputes are over.
The main concern of the public seems to be whether or not this could escalate to a bigger issue. Megan Miller is a part of the History Department on GHS and she has been keeping up to date with this issue consistently.
“I believe that the crisis at the Texas border could escalate into a bigger issue. The policies of the federal government are placing an overwhelming burden on the border states, who are not able to manage the amount of immigrants that are arriving in the United States daily. The current immigration policy is causing strife in many states and the federal government is being negligent to the very people they are supposed to defend, “ Miller said.
The worst case scenario seems to be an invasion and Civil War but that is just based on public fear and nothing has been said about that yet. There is a deal said to take place in the near future.
