Abbott, Texas and Republicans Defy U. S. Supreme Court Order at “The Graveyard of the Confederacy,” Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Tx
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2024
As the 2024 American Presidential campaign unfolds amidst a robust economy and record-breaking stock market on Wall Street, the State of Texas under the leadership of Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the national Republican Party led by former President Donald J. Trump have chosen to defy the United States Supreme Court Order issued on Monday, January 22, 2024, allowing the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol agents to cut the concertina wire installed by the Texas National Guard (TNG) and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) along the banks of the Rio Grande at the City of Eagle Pass Shelby Park and Municipal Golf Course while denying full access to federal government agents to the 47 acres public park and an adjacent 2.5 mile long area for purposes of enforcing federal immigration law, causing a constitutional crisis in America between Republican politicians and controlled-states and the United States government under President Joe Biden at the cradle of “The Graveyard of the Confederacy-Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas.”
Shelby Park was injudiciously named after former United Confederate States of America General Joseph Orville “J. O.” Shelby by the Eagle Pass City Council in the 1980s as a result of local amateur historians push to name the municipal public park after General Shelby to commemorate Shelby and his Confederate soldiers fleeing the United States after being losing the American Civil War to Union troops, choosing instead to pass through Eagle Pass and the Rio Grande and burying their Confederate flag in the middle of the Rio Grande before crossing into Mexico seeking to fight for French-supported Emperor Maximilian in Mexico City, giving rise to the motto of Eagle Pass being known as “The Graveyard of the Confederacy.”
Today, American history repeats itself as Governor Abbott and the Republican Party have chosen to “hold the line” at Shelby Park by refusing to honor the U. S. Supreme Court Order in the case styled U. S. Department of Homeland Security v. State of Texas, allowing U. S. Border Patrol agents to cut the razor-sharp military grade concertina wire installed by the Texas National Guard and DPS to deter undocumented immigrants from crossing into the United States from Mexico while seeking asylum or refuge. Abbott and Texas continue to deny full access and entry to Shelby Park to U. S. Border Patrol agents attempting to perform their national immigration law enforcement duties.
Abbott and the State of Texas are defying a standing U. S. Supreme Court Order causing a legitimate American constitutional crisis between the federal government and some of its member states controlled by Republicans. Texas National Guard and DPS officers continued to roll-out and install new concertina wire inside Shelby Park and the Rio Grande area while keeping U. S. Border Patrol agents out of Shelby Park and the 2.5 mile long border area.
On Thursday, January 25, 2024, former President Donald J. Trump advised Republican U. S. Senators and Congresspeople not to approve proposed bipartisan legislation to reform the American immigration law system in over 30 years in order to prevent President Joe Biden from receiving credit for a major policy victory during the Presidential election campaign.
Similarly, the Republican Governors Association, except Vermont, issued a public statement supporting Governor Abbott’s hard line stance against President Joe Biden’s enforcement of American immigration law system and utilization of controversial barriers such as the concertina wire, floating marine buoys, and other measures.
U. S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson signaled that now is not the right time for Congress to approve a historic reform of the American immigration law system in over 30 years, but noted to wait until former President Donald J. Trump is elected on November 5, 2024.
U. S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Mitch Romney have expressed their disagreement with Trump’s request to kill any proposed bipartisan immigration reform legislation so he can use immigration as his main Presidential campaign issue, jeopardizing a historic opportunity to reform the American immigration system towards a more conservative, favorable Republican perspective.
President Joe Biden has called the Republicans bluff with a straight poker face agreeing to concede major asylum and parole issues within the American immigration law system in exchange for funding of Border security, Ukraine, and Israel in the trade-off. Biden has demonstrated that Republicans are not genuinely interested in reforming the American immigration law, but rather are simply using it as a campaign issue to seek control of the White House and regain control of the U. S. House of Representatives and U. S. Senate during the November 2024 election.
Meanwhile, Eagle Pass citizens’ public safety and health have been compromised as their community has been held hostage by Republicans seeking to maintain the status-quo despite a transformational demographic shift within the United States that is inevitable and the writing is on the wall, unless the laws are significantly changed to suppress the vote of the people.
Abbott and Texas gained control and use of Eagle Pass’s Shelby Park in May of 2023 when Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas, Jr. unilaterally signed a Criminal Trespass Affidavit authorizing DPS and the Texas National Guard to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants seeking asylum at the public park area for criminal trespass of a “private property,” which was later rescinded by the Eagle Pass City Council in August 2023 after pubic outcry, but renewed in September 2023 again with minor modifications.
The U. S. Department of Homeland Security General Counsel Jonathan E. Meyer issued a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, dated January 25, 2024, requesting Texas give full access to Shelby Park to U. S. Border Patrol agents by no later than Friday, January 26, 2024, or, otherwise, the United States will refer the matter to the U. S. Department of Justice.
Governor Abbott and the State of Texas, together with his fellow Republican-controlled states and Donald J. Trump, prefer to cause a constitutional crisis among the federal government and its member states for political purposes, but neglect that Shelby Park is “The Graveyard of the Confederacy.”
