Texas refuses to obey a termination letter From the Biden administration regarding the state’s actions to prevent US Border Patrol agents from entering part of the territory border with Mexico.
One letter Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton denied the Department of Homeland Security’s request to “cease and desist” the Biden administration’s seizure of Shelby Park, an illegal immigration center on the southwest border in Eagle Pass.
“Because the facts and the law are on Texas’ side, the state will continue to exercise its constitutional authority to defend its territory, and I will continue to defend those legal efforts in court,” Paxton wrote.
A DHS spokeswoman referred NBC News to a letter this week from Department of Homeland Security senior adviser Jonathan Meyer. directing the state must stop blocking Border Patrol full access to the roughly 2½ miles of the U.S.-Mexico border occupied by the state’s National Guard.
DHS officials said Saturday there was a woman and two children Drowned in the Rio Grande After Border Patrol agents were “physically denied access to the area by Texas officials” on the orders of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
The Texas Military Department disputed DHS’s statement, saying its staff was aware of the disaster report but had not identified any problem migrants.
A White House spokesman criticized Abbott’s immigration policy in response to the drownings, saying in a statement this week that his “political actions are cruel, inhumane and dangerous.”
In Wednesday’s letter, Paxton said any suggestion the state was responsible for the deaths was “disgusting and, as you now know, completely inaccurate.”
The Biden administration has threatened to refer the matter to the Justice Department if Texas denies border patrol agents full access to the area.