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| Photo Credit: AP. |
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — A Texas pecan farm nearly the size of Disneyland has become entangled in a turf war between the Biden administration and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over immigration enforcement on the southern border.
Hugo and
Magali Urbina, who bought Heavenly Farms in April 2021, at first welcomed the
state footing the bill for a new chain-link fence through their property
earlier this year as part of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar crackdown on border
crossings along the Rio Grande. But then, one day, they found the fence’s main
gate unexpectedly locked.
The lock was
put there, the couple says, by Texas authorities who have spent months
arresting thousands of migrants on trespassing charges on private land. But the
Urbinas didn’t want the lock and neither did the U.S. Border Patrol, which
found it impeded the agency’s own immigration enforcement and had it removed.
Now a single
gate on the 1,200-mile Texas border has swung open a new dust-up over how to
address near-record levels of migration on America’s southern doorstep, a fight
the Urbinas say they want no part of.
“Unbelievable,” Abbott lashed out on social
media last month after the lock was removed. “While Texas secures the border,
the federal government is enabling illegal immigration.”
The dispute
is the latest example of how Texas’ unprecedented challenge to the federal
government’s authority on the border has created a clash among agencies working
at cross purposes.
The Border
Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass where most of the nearly
470-acre farm is located, is fast becoming the busiest corridor for illegal
crossings, with thousands passing each week onto the farm alone. The sector may
soon surpass Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, which has been the focus for the last
decade.
The Urbinas
do not oppose Abbott’s massive border mission. But in the case of the lock,
they say it went too far. They blamed what they see as a lack of single command
in an area saturated with state troopers, Texas National Guard members, U.S.
Border Patrol agents and local authorities, all of whom constantly cross paths
and often work in tandem.
“They are
all doing what they are being told,” Magali Urbina said. “It is really not
their fault, but there is nobody running or telling them. There is no boss.”
It isn’t an
isolated case.
In September
2021, Texas troopers told Border Patrol agents on horseback to block migrants
from crossing the river to a camp of nearly 16,000 predominantly Haitians in
Del Rio, about an hour’s drive north of Eagle Pass. Images of Border Patrol
agents twirling reins at overpowered migrants sparked widespread criticism,
including from President Joe Biden.
The internal
investigation found that agents acted against Border Patrol objectives and
“resulted in the unnecessary use of force against migrants who were attempting
to reenter the United States with food.” The agents had been “instructed to
help where needed” and not told anything more specific about how to respond to
requests from another agency.
Abbott, who
is seeking a third term, launched his multibillion-dollar “Operation Lone Star”
last year, creating an overwhelming presence on the border. The size and cost
of the mission has grown in defiance of the Democratic administration in
Washington:
— Since
July, the state has picked up 5,600 migrants who have entered the country
illegally in Texas and returned them to ports of entry on the border, a role
that has been reserved for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In Eagle
Pass, state buses drop off migrants throughout the day at a border crossing
with Piedras Negras, Mexico, as far as they can go. CBP releases them, creating
a circular flow.
Since April,
Texas has bused more than 7,000 migrants to Washington and New York on free,
voluntary trips, attempting to call attention to what it considers Biden’s
failed policies. This week, Abbott began sending buses to Chicago, with the
first arriving Thursday at Union Station. White House press secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre has called the move a “political ploy.”
— Since last
year, the state has charged more than 4,800 migrants with trespassing, a
misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.
The Urbinas’
farm, which winds along the river, includes an old house that the couple is
restoring for visitors to sample pecans, coffee and wine. They were inspired by
Fredericksburg, a town of German heritage near Austin that draws tourists.
The farm of
neatly manicured rows of trees had long drawn migrants but was relatively
peaceful before the lifelong Eagle Pass resident couple bought it. It is
located at the end of a stretch of new border fencing that was built on
Abbott’s orders, on the edge of the 30,000-resident town that is dotted with
warehouses, decaying houses and chain stores.
Agents
stopped migrants nearly 50,000 times in the Del Rio sector in July, with Rio
Grande Valley a distant second at about 35,000. About 6 of 10 stops in the Del
Rio sector were migrants from Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua, who are likely to
be released to pursue their immigration cases because poor diplomatic relations
with those countries means the U.S. can’t send them home.
Migrants
cross the river and climb a few feet uphill amidst overgrown Carrizo cane and
concertina wire to surrender on the farm’s edge, expecting they will be
released. U.S. Border Patrol agents, state troopers and journalists are a
regular presence.
“The
governor is telling everyone, ‘Secure the border.’ I have no doubt that is the
intent but the reality of it is that it’s just not that simple,” Anfinsen said.
“We’ve been doing this forever and it hasn’t been fixed yet. So it’s a noble
attempt, I suppose, but we’re going to have to take these people into custody.”
Border
Patrol officials declined comment.
Ericka
Miller, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the
agency is accommodating the Urbinas’ request to have the gate unlocked. She
said DPS is also working to have carrizo cane on the property removed but said
the Urbinas are allowing concertina wiring to stay on the property.
“All
landowner agreements are voluntary and can be eliminated at any time. Again,
DPS is there to assist the landowner,” Miller said in an email.
The
chain-link fence, which rises over the cane intertwined with the razor wire,
makes it easier for the Urbinas to pursue trespassing charges against people
crossing into their farm. However, they haven’t, although they know cattle
ranchers who have.
The state
and federal governments are each “wanting to pull all the levers” and not
working together, Hugo Urbina said. The couple regrets what they see as a
disconnect.
“The
president is not here, the governor is not here, but this is our land,” Magali
Urbina said.
Associated
Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Paul Weber in Austin, Texas,
contributed.