This Texas city is caught in a fight over who controls the southern border

Eagle Pass, Texas, is caught in the middle of a fight between state and federal power over who controls the southern border. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is now vowing to expand his border operations.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, is caught in a fight over who controls the southern border. Texas officials are restricting federal Border Patrol agents’ access to a riverfront park, accusing the Biden administration of not being tough enough on illegal crossings. Now, Republican Governor Greg Abbott is vowing to expand his aggressive border operations.

As Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies reports, this standoff is attracting far-right activists and leaving many in Eagle Pass on edge.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MAXWELL HAYES: It’s your job to protect America from criminals. Do it.

DAVID MARTIN DAVIES, BYLINE: Maxwell Hayes is unleashing his frustrations on a pair of Eagle Pass police officers who are calmly absorbing the abuse. The police are barricading the streets that lead to Shelby Park. That’s where the Texas National Guard has taken over. It fronts 2 1/2 miles of the Rio Grande, but the riverbank now is piled high with row after row of razor wire and a wall built out of steel shipping containers.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HAYES: I was supposed to be down there right now protesting these people coming across my border.

DAVIES: Hayes, a supporter of far-right militias, traveled to Eagle Pass from Colorado to join the so-called Take Our Border Back convoy – a mix of Trump supporters, migration hawks, election deniers and conspiracy theorists.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HAYES: We’ve got billions of dollars going to Ukraine, massacring Russians, and nobody cares about that massacre.

DAVIES: The police tell Hayes the area’s closed because of growing concerns about violence, reports of gunfire and a local bank robbery. This all has locals anxious and feeling caught in the middle….