Visiting Eagle Pass last month to investigate reports of outsiders overwhelming the small border city, a member of this editorial board found few signs of immigrants who had just waded across the Rio Grande. Perhaps they weren’t all that obvious, because usually those who arrive alone or in small groups don’t linger.
We did find an invasion of sorts. An invasion from the north.
Department of Public Safety troopers from Texas and other states and National Guard soldiers from Texas and elsewhere had not necessarily overwhelmed the community of nearly 30,000 residents, but their uniformed presence was ubiquitous. Whatever work they were doing to protect the border, they had discovered the best lunch specials at local Mexican restaurants and were keeping hotels and motels at capacity. They also had commandeered a riverside city park, transforming its soccer fields and green space into a staging ground for trucks, boats and DPS SUVs, as well as rolls of razor-sharp concertina wire and Rio Grande barrier buoys. The equipment and personnel were all part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border-enforcement showpiece, his multibillion-dollar Operation Lone Star. After allegations that state troopers mistreated migrants, some private property owners denied DPS access to their land along the border.
