This article was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
EAGLE PASS — On a chilly January afternoon, a military drone hovers over Shelby Park as Texas National Guard members pull boats from the Rio Grande and slide them onto trailers. Shipping containers topped with concertina wire line the riverbank, where men in fatigues erect a bilingual sign near the boat ramp that reads:
No migrant processing at this location. Please proceed to nearest port of entry for processing with U.S. Border Patrol.
The entire 47-acre park, including the golf course, is enclosed with concertina wire and patrolled by state troopers from Texas and Florida. At the entrance, behind a chain-link fence, three National Guard members lean against a green humvee, strapped with rifles.
“It looks like a war zone in a third-world country,” said real estate agent and Eagle Pass resident Carlos Herrera, who lives nearby with his wife and baby daughter.
No one can enter this city park without asking permission — soldiers let two journalists pass and wander around the park last week. But U.S. Border Patrol agents are strictly prohibited from the park grounds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The park has turned into a battleground in an escalating legal fight between the Biden…
