McALLEN, Texas — The drowning deaths of three migrants have brought new urgency to an extraordinary showdown between the Biden administration and Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has seized a city park in a major corridor for illegal crossings and denied entry to Border Patrol agents.
The Department of Justice filed a new request late Monday with the Supreme Court to grant federal agents access to a portion of the border along the Rio Grande that is occupied by the Texas National Guard and the Texas Military Department. The request followed the drownings of a young Mexican mother and her two children who tried to enter the U.S. through the river near Shelby Park at Eagle Pass, Texas.
The state fenced off Shelby Park last week and has been denying the public and federal agents access to the city-owned land as part of Abbott’s aggressive actions to stop illegal crossings. The drownings occurred hours after President Joe Biden’s administration first asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
Abbott posted on social media Monday that he is using “every tool possible to stop illegal immigration.”
The Department of Homeland Security and the Texas Military Department have provided different timelines about the drownings since they were made public Saturday by a South Texas congressman.
According to the Justice Department’s filing Monday, the deaths occurred at 8 p.m. Friday, an hour before U.S. federal agents were…
