Greg Abbott Pushes Some Texas Residents Too Far

An Eagle Pass, Texas resident warned Texas Governor Greg Abbott that he may have gone too far in his battle to tighten the United States-Mexico border after convoys of people demanding tighter immigration laws showed up in the border town.

In a video posted to Instagram by the organization Presente, Eagle Pass resident Jessie Fuentes said that “armed militias were inspired to invade our normally quiet, safe and peaceful border town” after Abbott held a press conference with other Republican governors earlier in February about the southern border.

Abbott was joined by GOP governors in Eagle Pass, where he vowed to continue defying the Biden administration amid a clash over control of the border. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with President Joe Biden, ruling that the federal government could remove razor wire at Shelby Park, an area of Eagle Pass along the Rio Grande the state has taken control of in their efforts to limit undocumented migrants from entering the country.

Texas authorities, however, have maintained they have the authority to use the razor wire because they believe the federal government failed to address what they view as an “invasion” at the southern border.

A Texas National Guard soldier watches migrants who crossed the Rio Grande on December 18, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. An Eagle Pass resident said Texas Governor Greg Abbott may have gone too far.

John Moore/Getty Images

There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

“We, the citizens of Eagle Pass, do hereby request that you vacate Shelby Park and return it back to us, the citizens of Eagle Pass, who are the rightful owners of the property,” Fuentes said. “It is an affront to the U.S. and us as taxpayers of this great state that you have seized our public park, that is controlled by everyone, to support an extreme, partisan political agenda that endangers our families.”

He said the park has been “turned into a military-style staging area” being used as a “backdrop for political theater,” criticizing that local residents can “no longer use our park for fishing, kayaking, flea markets, barbecues, quinceaneras or even to have our children play.”

Fuentes knocked Abbott for allegedly excluding the “voices of the very residents who live here.”

“You are creating fiction, and using our community’s resources to do it. You are telling a dangerous and misleading story about us, about the border, about our safe communities,” he said.

Newsweek reached out to Abbott’s office for comment via email.

Nancy Treviño, the director of power for Presente, the organization that posted the video, told Newsweek that Abbott can “respect the wishes of residents by swiftly demilitarizing Shelby Park which has had devastating environmental impacts to the Rio Grande and its wildlife.”

“Additionally, residents urge the governor to comply with the December federal appeals court order telling Texas to remove the razor buoys from the Rio Grande as well as complying with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling allowing federal Border Patrol agents to resume cutting razor wire from the banks of the river.”

Several Eagle Pass residents have raised concerns about the border convoy that traveled through Eagle Pass earlier in February, particularly after the arrest of a Tennessee man who said he planned to “stir up the hornets’ nest,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

He was allegedly in possession of AR-15 rifles, several other firearms, and a large amount of ammunition, the newspaper reported.