SAN ANTONIO — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has seized control of a public park in a town on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of his homegrown immigration enforcement operation, the town’s mayor said in a video.
The state’s forces moved in Wednesday night to take over Shelby Park in the border community of Eagle Pass, about two hours east of San Antonio. The park is along the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, the river border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas posted a video to Facebook on Wednesday showing military vehicles lined up along a chain link fence that had been erected at an entrance to the park.
“This is not something that we wanted. This is not something that we asked for as a city. I want to make that clear,” Salinas said in the video.
He said he was told of the park’s takeover on Wednesday morning in a call from a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) official who told him that the state was taking “full control” of the park “indefinitely.”
The park became the center of controversy in July after Salinas declared it private so state DPS troopers could arrest migrants crossing there on charges of trespassing. The city later rescinded that declaration amid backlash from residents.
In a statement, Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said the state will use “every tool and strategy” in response to spikes in the number of people Customs and Border Patrol is encountering at the border, which she blamed on the policies of President Joe Biden, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
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