AUSTIN (Nexstar) – A public park in the South Texas border town of Eagle Pass has been taken over by the state to prevent migrants from illegally crossing the Rio Grande. Federal officials say the state is also blocking Border Patrol agents from accessing the area.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas said in a social media post Wednesday night that Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials and Texas National Guard have put up a gate and sealed off Shelby Park.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court on Friday to order Texas to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from the portion of the U.S.-Mexico border contained within the park. It’s an area where large numbers of migrants have crossed in recent months.
Along one stretch, armed Texas National Guard members and their vehicles are preventing Border Patrol agents from accessing the river, the DOJ said in a court filing. The Texas National Guard also allegedly used a Humvee to keep Border Patrol agents off an access road.
The park was to be the site of a scheduled Saturday afternoon ceremony in remembrance of migrants who died in 2023 while trying to cross the Southwest border.
Over 700 wooden crosses have been put on a field in Shelby Park, near International Bridge 1, and organizers told Border Report that they planned to sing and commemorate the lives lost.
Over 700 wooden crosses have been put at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, by the banks of the Rio Grande, in honor of migrants who died trying to cross the Southwest border from Mexico. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
But now the event is unlikely to be held.
Salinas said he was told by DPS that the park will remain closed “indefinitely.”
“They are taking full control, custody of Shelby Park,” Salinas said. “In talking to the state, they say their mission is to prevent another mass amount of people from crossing, so now they have this operation.”
However, Salinas notes that the number of migrants trying to illegally cross the border from Piedras Negras, Mexico, has dropped significantly in the past several days. Officials say it’s down from over 4,000 per day to about 400 per day.
The Hope Mission Border migrant shelter is practically empty, Eagle Pass Border Vigil Founder Amerika Garcia Grewal told Border Report earlier this week in the border town of under 30,000 residents.
She organized Saturday’s ceremony and said she’s stunned that the park is now closed.
“There’s no access to the cross memorial, there’s no access to the downtown parking. We have no access whatsoever, and we have no explanation,” Garcia Grewal told Border Report on Thursday.
“Texas is holding the line at our southern border with miles of additional razor wire and anti-climb barriers to deter and repel the record-high levels of illegal immigration invited by President Biden’s reckless open border policies,” said Texas Governor’s Office spokesperson Renae Eze in a statement to Border Report. “Instead of enforcing federal immigration laws, the Biden administration allows unfettered access for Mexican cartels to smuggle people into our country. Texas will continue to deploy Texas National Guard soldiers, DPS troopers, and more barriers, utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to President Biden’s ongoing border crisis.”
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a border disaster declaration in 2021, which he renewed in December. It includes Maverick County, where Eagle Pass is located.
“I can’t believe this is happening in the United States of America in the year 2024,” Garcia Grewal said.
She noted that Shelby Park last year was turned over to state officials by Salinas, but the order was revoked.
“This is not the City of Eagle Pass denying people access to the park,” said Salinas in a Facebook post. “This is the state saying that, using this emergency declaration. They have this mission going on. When asked how long this mission will take place they told me it is indefinitely.”
Garcia Grewal says families use the park for holiday and birthday celebrations, and the large parking lot offers free parking spaces for residents who want to walk over the bridge to Piedras Negras, or shop in the downtown district.
“We’ve lost our park. We have lost 35 acres of access to our park, and it’s the only public boat ramp in the city,” she said.
‘They’re fed up,’ McCaul praises efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary
Republicans in Congress are moving forward with efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of not enforcing immigration laws.
Texas Congressman Michael McCaul is one of those critics, and has an influential voice as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Politics reporter Monica Madden spoke with the Congressman to get his perspective on why he thinks impeachment is the right move.
Monica Madden: “Given your legal background, what specific actions or inactions from the secretary do you think warrant his impeachment?”
Michael McCaul: “I think it’s a failure to follow and execute the law, the failure to detain and remove those coming into the country illegally, which is what Remain in Mexico did. On day one, he rescinded that policy and went back to a, quite frankly, we’ve never experienced this kind of lack of law enforcement. We have 8 million people encounters with no legal status. You’ve had over 300 on the terror watchlist come in, and we’ve had 150,000 people dead now, due to fentanyl deaths, many in the Austin area by the way. I can’t get into names but you know, people, friends of my kids from Westlake High School, they took what they thought was Xanax was laced with fentanyl, and they don’t wake up.
But going back to what the Founding Fathers envisioned. They didn’t even envision a specific violation of a federal criminal statute. They didn’t have very many at that time. They looked at they talked about things like abuse of power and neglect of duty, dereliction of duty. Hamilton talked in the Federalist papers about injuries done immediately to society itself, which clearly there’s been a lot of damage to the fabric of America over the last two and a half, three years due to the Secretary’s inaction and failure to follow the law, and also his just abuse of power.
I tell you back home, I deal as chairman of Foreign Affairs with a lot of other issues like Israel, and you know, Russia and Ukraine and China and the threat to Taiwan. But this is always the number one issue is a threat to the southern from the southern border, and how can we fix it? So I’m a voice for about 800,000 people. They’re very loud and clear what they want me to say up here, and that is that they’re fed up. They think this man should be removed from office and they want him impeached.”
Monica Madden: “Typically, cabinet members are enforcers of policy decisions by the administration at large. Is impeachment the right move in response to this issue, which when many see that Mayorkas is carrying out President Biden’s policies?
Michael McCaul: “I think Mayorkas is, he’s a smart man. He was a U.S. Attorney in California, like I was in Texas, and he knows what he’s doing. This is not done by accident. It’s done by design. I think he had every intention to rescind this law. And I personally think it was his advice, his guidance to the President that led to this rescission of policy.
We’re not looking at throwing a lot more money down there at the border, we’ve already spent a lot of money if they need more then I’d consider that. But we really want these fundamental changes in policy that have led to the pull factor, the magnet, that’s bringing in all these people. Rather than pushing our border out further south, we’re bringing it into the United States.
I don’t know how we’re going to absorb 8 million people with no legal status. And all they’re going to do is go to criminal enterprises like, you know, MS 13, cartels in the United States, sex human trafficking, largest trafficking event in my lifetime.
But to answer your question, I think this man is personally responsible for the policy changes, and he has to own it, and we’re going to speak on behalf of the American people. Now, do I think this is going to go anywhere in the Senate? Probably not. But I think the American people deserve to have their voices heard on this subject.”
Monica Madden: “Congressman, which do you think would have more immediate results for the country when it comes to border policy, the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas or congressional reform on border policy? I know that’s something that you all are working on. But should Congress be more focused on trying to get the Secure the Border Act across the finish line?”
Michael McCaul: “You know, I almost see them working in tandem together because it gives us leverage and strength, say look, the American people are fed up with your conduct with your abuse of power, your neglect of duty, and they want you to do your job. So we’re going to impeach in the House. It’s not gonna go anywhere in the Senate, probably but you need to come to the table and change these policies now. And now’s the time as we’re facing a potential looming government shutdown, which I never liked those. All that does is hurts our national defense or military. I’d far prefer to have a continuing resolution where we can get the business of government done, fund the government and include a major border policy, national security change of policy that will fix this border.
We had this thing done. When I chaired Homeland Security Committee, we literally had it to the point where we had stopped the flow into the country, we were going to build a detention facility in southern Mexico on the Guatemalan border that would process these individuals. And we finally had a system that was going to work. And then Mayorkas came in and changed everything.”
Is the Texas power grid ready for the Arctic blast?
As Texans brace for frigid temperatures descending on most of the state early next week, some still fret about the fallout of the deadly February 2021 blackout. State leaders are reassuring Texans the state is prepared to avoid the worst of our winter memories, while also preparing for the worst-case scenarios.
ERCOT predicts a nearly one-in-six chance of rolling blackouts if conditions mirror Winter Storm Elliot, the December 2022 storm that kept parts of Texas at or below freezing for as long as three days.
In a December 2023 outlook, ERCOT reports a 14.66% chance of “controlled outages” if conditions reach a similar severity. Absent those conditions, the chance of outages drops to less than 3%.
“Under typical grid conditions, the deterministic scenario indicates that there should be sufficient generating capacity available to serve the expected peak load,” the report states.
Abbott was adamant in December that the Texas grid is ready.
“Texas and the grid are better prepared than we’ve ever been,” Abbott said on Dec. 14.
“The power grid is as ready and reliable as it has ever been for the winter season,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said. “We have more generating and dispatchable resources available to the grid than we have had in any prior winter in history. So we are ready for that.”
Since February 2021, power plants have winterized and ERCOT has conducted more than 1,500 inspections, Vegas said.
“I think the weatherization requirements for the electric power plants have certainly helped. I think the legislature requiring the Railroad Commission to act and improve weatherization for the natural gas delivery system was probably helpful,” University of Houston Energy Fellow Ed Hirs told Nexstar.
Dr. Josh Rhodes, research director with the Webber Energy Group at UT Austin, agrees this week will likely not pose significant issues. He says the drier climate will allow wind energy in West Texas to perform well.
“We’re entering the storm a little bit differently than we did coming into Winter Storm Uri,” Rhodes said. “It’s not going to be as wet or as cold for as long…I think it’s just a bit of a different story. But that doesn’t mean we might not have issues on the system.”
Hirs noted that, while this year’s ERCOT outlook predicts a one-in-six chance of blackouts, ERCOT predicted just a one-in-twenty chance of blackouts in Feb. 2021. He’s concerned the supply will not meet peak demand without renewable sources supplementing fossil fuels.
“As we play ERCOT weather roulette, if we come up a loser, we come up a loser no matter what the governor says,” Hirs said. “ERCOT is forecasting a peak demand on Monday night that’s really like a summer day — over 80,000 megawatts. We do not have enough coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants and batteries that we can turn on to match that 80,000 megawatts. Keep in mind, the sun doesn’t contribute if it happens at night, and the wind won’t contribute if there’s freezing precipitation.”
“We just have less information about how winterized the natural gas system is, and it provides about 40% of our electricity. So we need to make sure that the entire system is good to go,” Rhodes said.
Last year, the legislature passed into law a plan meant to incentivize energy companies to build more natural gas power plants. The state is offering loans to build plants and other financial incentives meant to ensure companies have enough power when grid conditions are tight. The power-plant-building plan could cost the state as much as $18 billion.
Rhodes called the plan a “temporary stopgap measure,” but doubted the ability of the state to continue the program in the long term.
“I don’t really see it as a long-term solution unless we decide to subsidize the construction of power plants long term, which isn’t how we do electricity necessarily in Texas,” Rhodes said. “I’d rather take a more holistic approach to the system.”
Hirs argued that more power plants won’t necessarily lead to more energy supply.
“If we built 20 new power plants on the grid, we would only ensure that the price stayed down,” Hirs said. “If I’m a power company with 20 power plants on the ERCOT grid and so far this winter I’ve only had to run 12, why would I put the other eight online? If I do, then I just make sure that the price stays at the average of $50 a megawatt hour. If I don’t click those eight online, then I make sure that my other 12 will get $5,000 a megawatt hour during the cold front.”
This week’s arctic air is expected to hit Texas late Saturday and linger until Wednesday.
‘She really was a pioneer,’ Lawmakers honor the legacy of Eddie Bernice Johnson
Family, friends and Texas lawmakers gathered at the renowned Texas State Cemetery on Wednesday to bury the late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, to whom many credited major state successes and minority victories after a historic career in public service.
Johnson retired last January after three decades in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which she became the first African American and first woman to chair the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment. In her 1972 race for the Texas House, she broke barriers of race and gender to become the first black woman from Dallas elected to public office.
“She left behind such a legacy in the Texas House, the Texas Senate, and the U.S. Congress. She was a trailblazer. She really was a pioneer,” said State Rep. Ron Reynolds, who now chairs the House Legislative Black Caucus that Johnson founded in 1973. “Sometimes, when someone’s in your backyard, you don’t realize what you have. But people all over the world treasured Eddie Bernice Johnson.”
Burial in the Texas State Cemetery is one of the highest final honors reserved for the state’s most impactful citizens. Johnson now rests beside other legendary Texans, including Stephen F. Austin, Bob Bullock, and 14 governors.
“She’s earned it. She’s been on the front lines since well past the seventies when it was not okay to be African American,” State Chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats Candice Matthews said. “So I think that this is due time, and I think that it’s well done for her to be buried in a historical place like this that did not recognize people that look like us. Her work got her here.”
On Monday, President Joe Biden made his first presidential trip to Dallas to honor the late congresswoman at her wake.
Johnson was 88.
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