EAGLE PASS, Texas — Groups of migrants continue their influx into the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Tuesday. The migrants were undeterred by the concertina wire put in place by the State of Texas to reduce migrant crossings in the area.
Breitbart Texas posted along the Rio Grande and observed several small groups of migrants consisting of men, women, and children cross the Rio Grande and surrender to the state law enforcement and military units posted in the area. The migrants were handed over to the Border Patrol at a nearby staging area under the Camino Real International Bridge near the heart of downtown Eagle Pass.
At one location near the heart of the city, migrants had little trouble breaching the barrier on their own as Florida State Highway Patrol troopers and Texas National Guard soldiers deployed under Operation Lone Star watched.
Several miles south of Eagle Pass on Tuesday evening, the largest single group of 169 migrants forded the Rio Grande and were engaged in a face-off with Texas Army National Guard soldiers for several hours. Breitbart Texas observed the migrant group as they crossed into the United States and reached the north bank of the Rio Grande. According to the CBP source, after the hours-long standoff, the migrants were able to breach the concertina wire in multiple smaller groups and surrender to the Border Patrol.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, on Thursday, a Temporary Restraining Order from a federal judge in the Western District of Texas barred the Border Patrol from “disassembling, degrading, tampering with” concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande, to assume custody of migrants on the banks of the Rio Grande.
The restraining order was issued based on a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Public Policy Foundation against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Border Patrol. The suit was filed after Border Patrol agents were observed cutting the wire to take custody of migrants in Eagle Pass during a recent migrant surge into Eagle Pass in September.
During a visit to the border region in September, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens addressed the issue of his agents cutting the concertina wire with reporters, stating, “the migrants are already on U.S. soil after landfall at the wire’s edge. If they start getting swept away by the currents or start succumbing to the environment, the extreme temperatures and humidity that you all feel right now, and my men and women see that. They are not going to let somebody die or get into harm’s way.”
The migrant groups crossing near the Eagle Pass area on Tuesday needed little help getting through the concertina wire despite the issuance of the restraining order preventing the Border Patrol from manipulating the wire to intervene in the crossings. The state authorities posted at the scene of Tuesday’s crossing offered no resistance to the group as they moved through the wire. Texas law enforcement authorities subsequently summoned the Border Patrol to take custody of the migrants. According to a source within CBP, the migrants, like many others surrendering to authorities in the area, will be released to pursue asylum claims in the United States.
The source told Breitbart Texas the wire and other barriers will only serve to slow the migrants from reaching U.S. soil. Absent any substantial consequences placed upon them by the Biden Administration, they will keep coming, the source says, adding, “Until we discontinue catch and release, they will find a way over, under, or through whatever is placed in front of them.”
Breitbart Texas observed several busloads of migrants being released by the Border Patrol to the Mission Border Hope shelter. More than one hundred migrants queued outside the shelter waiting to be admitted.
The shelter will coordinate transportation to multiple destinations within the United States.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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