A Biden administration claim that the state of Texas prevented federal Border Patrol agents from rescuing three migrants who drowned at the southern border was undermined by its own Department of Justice.
The allegation from Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that Border Patrol agents “responding to a distress call from the Mexican government … were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.” The DHS spokesperson went on to call Texas “cruel, dangerous, and inhumane.”
But the administration’s own accounting of the incident by the DOJ makes clear that the allegations against Texas authorities were false. The DOJ states that at 9:00 p.m. on January 12, the Mexican government informed Border Patrol that three migrants, two children and one woman, had drowned at 8:00 p.m. Border Patrol informed the Texas Military Department of the drowning over an hour after it had occurred.
The Biden administration once again pushed a false narrative at the border, now refuted by their own DOJ.
White House claim: “On Friday night, a woman and two children drowned near Eagle Pass, and Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency… pic.twitter.com/B8bsP13Mxv
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 16, 2024
The allegation came days after the state of Texas took control of a park in Eagle Pass that was previously used by members of Border Patrol to process illegal immigrants before releasing them into the interior of the United States. The takeover is part of an ongoing feud between Texas and the federal government, with the two locked in legal battles over the federal government’s decision to cut razor wire placed on the border by the state.
The Texas Military Department also addressed the claim directly.
“At no time did TMD security personnel along the river observe any distressed migrants, nor did TMD turn back any illegal immigrants from the US during this period,” it said in a statement.
Other migrants who struggled as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande into the United States were rescued by the Mexican government about 45 minutes after Border Patrol made Texas authorities aware of the situation, Governor Greg Abbott’s office said.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) seized on the drowning to blast the state of Texas for defending its borders, arguing that it “bears responsibility” for the deaths.
Texas’ decision to secure its border comes as the United States faces an unprecedented surge of illegal aliens with over 10 million crossing the border since Joe Biden took office.
The increased figures include a record-breaking number of Chinese nationals and a 1,000% increase in illegal immigration from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Dominican Republic, among other countries.
The previous monthly record for southern border encounters was just broken in November, when just under a quarter million migrants were encountered, according to official DHS statistics. A total of 308,728 encounters were reported by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) nationwide during the month. DHS has yet to release statistics for December, but the reported number of encounters at the southern border was over 300,000.