Jan. 14 (UPI) — Three people, including two children, drowned in the Rio Grande River near the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, while seeking asylum in the United States, a congressman said Saturday.
The Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court Friday that Texas had seized 50-acre Shelby Park from the city of Eagle Pass, forcing agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection out.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D- Tex., accused the state of failing to act amid escalating tensions between Texas and the US government over immigration enforcement.
The people who drowned were a mother and her two children, an eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, Cuellar said.
“This is a tragedy, and the state bears responsibility,” Cuellar said in a statement.
The park is a major crossing point for migrants trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico and has been the focus of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott‘s aggressive attempts to stop illegal crossings, known as Operation Lone Star.
People crossing the Rio Grande have been killed when they were swept away by swift currents. Over the summer, the state deployed buoys covered in razor wire into the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossling. A court ruled the state had to remove the buoys.
A Texas congressman said Saturday that three people, including two children, who were seeking asylum in the U.S. drowned near the border city of Eagle Pass, where the Biden administration says Texas has begun denying access to border patrol agents.
Mexican officials alerted the U.S. Border Patrol Friday that three people were struggling in the river late Friday, Cuellar said, and when federal agents attempted to relay an alert to Texas National Guard members at Shelby Park, they were met with no response.
He said border patrol agents who went to the park were “physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.” The Department of Homeland Security confirmed its border patrol agents were turned back in a statement provided to CNN.
“The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks,” the DHS said in its statement.
The park is owned by the city but has been used by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department to patrol border crossings. The state seized control of the city park from local officials last week and barred federal border patrol agents from entering the premises.
Daily attempted crossings dropped to about 500 from the thousands, according to a court filing, after the state erected fences and stationed military vehicles near the park’s entry, denying access to border patrol agents and the public.
The Texas military department claimed it searched the river after being contacted by border patrol agents, but did not report seeing anyone in distress.
“At no time did TMD security personnel along the river observe any distressed migrants, nor did TMD turn back any illegal immigrants from the US during this period,” TMD said in a statement.
“Also, at no point was TMD made aware of any bodies in the area of Shelby Park, nor was TMD made aware of any bodies being discovered on the US side of the border regarding this situation.”
TMD said officials saw Mexican authorities responding to an incident on the Mexican side of the river about 45 minutes later. TMD ceased search operations after reporting their observations to the border patrol, it said. Border patrol then confirmed that the Mexican authorities did not require additional assistance, TMD said.
