Three migrants drown at US border as Texas, White House feud
By Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) -A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande as they tried to the enter the U.S. from Mexico on Friday night after Texas military officers prevented federal border officials from aiding them, U.S. border officials and a member of Congress said.
The deaths come as a dispute over immigration intensifies between Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, and the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, with a record number of migrants having illegally crossed the border since Biden took office in 2021.
Under Abbott, Texas has increasingly sought to implement its own border controls, which have historically been the legal domain of the federal government.
Officials said the three were attempting to cross the river near Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which is not a legal port of entry and is where the Texas National Guard this week added concertina wire and fencing.
In a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, the federal government accused Texas of erecting the new barriers to block federal Border Patrol agents from reaching a boat ramp they use to access the Rio Grande.
Responding on Saturday, Texas said federal Border Patrol agents had largely stopped using the boat ramp in recent months and, until Friday's filing, it was «unaware of federal law enforcement's current objections and was working promptly to address them.»
Federal Border Patrol agents learned around 9 p.m. Central Time on Friday (0300 GMT Saturday) of a group of migrants in distress as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande, according to the statement by U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat.
Federal agents, failing to contact Texas officials by telephone, went in person to the Shelby Park entrance to
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