The deaths of three migrants at the border raise tensions between the Biden administration and Texas International

Tensions are rising between Joe Biden’s administration and Texas over the immigration crisis. Federal and local authorities continue their dispute over monitoring the border with Mexico. The pulse between the two has intensified recently, days after three Mexican migrants — a young mother and her two children, ages eight and ten — drowned in the Rio Grande while trying to reach the United States. The back-and-forth between the parties has made it clear that the fight has made one of the most dangerous avenues for international immigration even more deadly.

On Monday night, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in Washington’s lawsuit against Texas over its border with Mexico. In their request, federal authorities explain that last Friday, January 12, at approximately 9:00 a.m. (local time), the government of Mexico notified the Border Patrol that two Mexican migrants were in distress near a boat ramp on the US side. the border the river The discovery was in Shelby Park, an area in Eagle Pass County that has become the epicenter of an immigration crisis that represents a threat to Biden in a year where re-election is at stake.

In their communication, Mexican officials also reported that three people had drowned in the same area an hour earlier, at approximately 8:00 p.m. “Mexicans have not entered the United States,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Sunday. The victims were originally from the state of Mexico and were not identified at the time. The bodies were recovered by the Beta Group of the National Immigration Institute and the National Guard.

After being notified by Mexican authorities, agents of the Border Patrol, the federal agency that monitors the 3,000-kilometer border with Mexico, attempted to enter the Shelby Park area guarded by state police since Jan. 11. “Through the closed gate, uniformed members of the Texas National Guard refused to allow Border Patrol supervisors to enter, arguing that they were under orders to prevent the group from entering the park,” the letter addressed to the Supreme Court said. A superior officer of the guards stationed reported that the orders barred federal agents from passing even in “emergency situations.”

Although the Texas National Guard sent several agents to investigate, the endangered migrants were rescued by Mexican authorities, albeit on the US side. They were pulled from the water with hypothermia and returned to Mexico Friday night with two others trying to enter the United States.

The incident, according to the federal government, reflects Texas’ “firm effort” to control four kilometers of the border. “It is impossible to say what would have happened if the Border Patrol had had normal access to the area, including the vehicles that allowed it to inspect the area (…) At least the Mexican counterpart could have been assisted. The rescue mission , but Texas made that impossible,” the Justice Department says.

The deaths of the three migrants have drawn heavy criticism from Republican Greg Abbott’s government. “This is a tragedy and the state has responsibility for it,” said Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar, one of the entity’s most prominent Latinos, over the weekend. “Republicans have successfully dehumanized immigrants so that there is no empathy in such cases,” said Veronica Escobar, another Texas Democratic representative in Congress.

Legislator Escobar recalled that Governor Abbott told a conservative radio host that his administration was doing everything it could to strengthen border surveillance. “The only thing we’re doing is not shooting at migrants because the Biden administration will charge us with murder,” the president said on January 11, a day before the incident in the Rio Grande.

Washington has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the Fifth Federal Circuit of Appeals that temporarily prohibits the Border Patrol from destroying barbed wire fences installed by Texas agents along the border. State Attorney General Ken Paxton has explained that the appeals court is already fast-tracking the matter and that it is a ploy by the Biden administration to change the appeals process.

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