EAGLE PASS, Texas — From a shady bench off Main Street, next to the city park the state of Texas confiscated Jessie Fuentes, who was on the road for his border operations in January, sometimes enjoys counting the number of Humvees, Department of Public Safety SUVs and unmarked trucks driven by uniformed soldiers that pass him.
Fuentes said he often loses track.
“You just don’t want your community to become a militarized zone,” said Fuentes, a retired teacher who now runs a business that offers kayak and canoe tours and lessons on the Rio Grande. “It gives you a sense of hopelessness.”
Since governor. Greg Abbott started Operation Lone Star In March 2021, Texas deployed thousands of National Guard troops – along with DPS troops – to the border. The soldiers patrolled the riverbank with drones and weapons, installed countless Coils of barbed wire on its banks and at least once Migrants spied on using WhatsAppMore recently, they have turned to crowd control, attempting to contain groups of migrants who had broken through state barriers and Shooting pepper balls to prevent crossings.
To support the operation, 18 other states have deployed about 2,400 troops to the Texas-Mexico border over the past two years, Major General Thomas M. Suelzer, commander of the Texas National Guard, testified recently at a hearing before a committee of the state legislature.
“In this crisis, every state has become a border state,” said Sülzer.
Texas’ unprecedented push to secure the border ran counter to laws and court rulings that say immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
Eagle Pass has in many ways become the focus of the state’s efforts to strengthen the border. Texas is building a 80 hectare military base with a capacity of over 2,000 National Guard troops. Against the city’s wishes, the state also took over Shelby Park, where Main Street begins, and built a wall of shipping containers secured with barbed wire along the river.
People in the city of 30,000 have mixed feelings about being surrounded by troops. Some agree with the state’s Republican politicians that the forces — mostly stationed on the riverbank facing Mexico — are necessary to keep migrants from entering the country. Others see it as an unwelcome invasion by the state into their close-knit community.
Whatever the case, they have no say in what the state does in Eagle Pass, where Fuentes can trace his family’s 240-year history.
He used to offer tours from the public boat ramp in Shelby Park, but that’s sporadic now because the state restricts access to the park, he says. He used to emphasize the beauty of the park where he grew up, but now he mostly shows out-of-towners the state facilities – a floating barrier in the river to prevent migrants from crossing, rows of shiny barbed wire – and talks about the impact it’s having on the river.
“To me, it’s just annoying that they’re messing everything up,” he said. “This is our ecosystem. This is what gives us life.”
At the Eagle Grocery near Shelby Park, 80-year-old Benny Rodriguez, who runs the store with his wife, said he supports the National Guard.
“They mean well, they want to do a good job and we wish them luck,” he said. “We just want Eagle Pass to continue to be successful, to create jobs and for everyone to have a good living.”
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said neither he nor his 34 deputies have much contact with the National Guard troops. Their presence in the community benefits the city when the troops are off duty and spending money at restaurants and stores, he said.
Still, he wants the state to leave Shelby Park. The city can no longer hold celebrations there, people can no longer relax on the riverfront and children can no longer play soccer, he said.
“It should be returned to the city,” said Schmerber.
In and around the 47-acre park, National Guard soldiers stand guard at an entrance gate and walk the riverbank, where families once fished and relaxed in the open waterfront area. Now the riverside tranquility is sometimes interrupted by the roar of airboats and the occasional crack of a helicopter’s blades as soldiers patrol by sea and air.
Eagle Pass was a hotspot for migrant crossings as recently as December, when thousands of migrants entered the country through the city during the record migration across the southern border. Since then, however, fewer migrants have attempted to enter the country through Eagle Pass. Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, recorded the largest decline in encounters with migrants earlier this year compared to their counterparts along the rest of the southwest border.
While encounters in the Del Rio sector fell 66% from May 2023 to May 2024, the El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico, saw a smaller decline of 10% over the same period.
Earlier this year, enormous groups of migrants regularly gathered on the Mexican bank of the droughty riverbed in El Paso, waiting for an opportunity to cut through the barbed wire and squeeze through so they could surrender and seek asylum. After two stampedes at a border gate this spring, police arrested hundreds of migrants and charged them with rioting – an unusual move that is currently being reviewed by the local courts.
Soldiers of the National Guard started firing pepper balls near migrants to break up groups and prevent them from approaching border barriers, according to National Guard leaders. Soldiers are trained not to shoot migrants with the projectiles, which contain chemicals that irritate the eyes, nose and throat. But migrants in Ciudad Juárez report being hit by the projectiles, which have left welts and bruises.
In the hours between dusk and dawn on a recent Monday, soldiers flew a drone over the river, searching for migrants hiding in the undergrowth. Others patrolled on foot, keeping watch across the river, where empty water canisters, shoes and bras left behind by migrants heading north littered the droughty riverbed.
Some migrants were able to enter the United States after several men used bolt cutters to cut a hole in a barbed wire fence. A moment later, a truck appeared with its siren blaring.
“Go back inside! Hurry up!” a National Guard soldier shouted to several dozen migrants who were approaching the barbed wire.
“Go back to Venezuela,” shouted another.
A enormous part of the group quickly retreated.
Uriel J. García contributed to this story.
