EAGLE PASS — In trucks, vans and mobile homes, hundreds of people began to arrive at the southern tip of the United States to demonstrate this Saturday against the immigration “invasion” that they say is affecting the country and to “recover” the border.
The caravan of vehicles arrived at a ranch in Quemado, a Texas town of 162 inhabitants, with rustic houses scattered in the middle of the valley through which the Rio Grande or Rio Grande runs, the natural border between the United States and Mexico.
Thousands of migrants cross that river every month, undertaking long journeys from Central and South America fleeing poverty and in search of better living conditions in the United States, a key issue in the debate of the November presidential elections.
And it is on the banks of that river where the activists who call themselves “We the People” decided to meet (“We the People”, as the preamble to the US Constitution begins).
Days before, one of the organizers of the event stated that the participants were “God’s Army.”
Under the motto “Take our border back,” these activists began convoys this past week from different parts of the country to towns on the southern border to camp there this weekend.
“The migration at the border is out of control. We are being invaded and, we need to control what is happening,” said Robyn Forzano, 43, who controls access to the ranch in Texas.
Vans arrive with flags of support for former president Donald Trump, Republican favorite for the November presidential elections, and with slogans rejecting the Democratic ruler Joe Biden, who will try for a new term.
“Heaven has walls, hell has open borders,” reads one activist’s sign.
“disaster zone”
“When you go to Mexico, there are fantastic people, but it seems that when they cross over to this side, … they commit robberies,” says Marty Bird, 73, in Eagle Pass.
This city about 30 kilometers from Quemado is the epicenter of a conflict between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration.
The federal government is suing Abbott for taking military control of Shelby Park, which has an access ramp to the river, and for laying barbed wire on the riverbank.
In mid-January, the Biden government reported that Texan soldiers prevented border police, under federal jurisdiction, from accessing the park to rescue three migrants who drowned. Texas rejected the accusation.
Biden took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which authorized border police to cut the barbed wire fence. But the governor has opposed and has put up more fences.
With a kayak rental business on that river, Jessie Fuentes is directly affected by the situation: “That river today is a disaster zone (…) The park is becoming a military base.”
Alejandro Mayrkas, federal secretary of Homeland Security, said Friday that the governor’s actions were “inadmissible.” The official faces impeachment in Congress, accused of promoting the immigration crisis with his policies.
Eagle Pass, which has about 30,000 residents, has become a major corridor for illegal crossings in recent years, prompting Abbott to focus his attention there. The community is located in the Border Patrol sector of Del Rio, Texas, which is typically the busiest of the agency’s nine divisions on the border.
No migrants were seen in the grassy fields of Shelby Park on Friday as Texas National Guard troops unwound razor wire over containers that dot the riverbank. According to the mayor, about 200 people arrived the day before, a figure much lower than those registered in December.
At a ranch outside Eagle Pass where Abbott supporters gathered before Saturday’s rally, vendors sold hats and flags inspired by Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. A homemade sign read: “The federal government has lost its way. Their job is to protect the states.”
Source: With information from AFP and AP
