EAGLE PASS, Texas — More than a year after Texas military fenced off and locked out Border Patrol agents from accessing the United States-Mexico frontier as thousands of illegal immigrants surged across, position authorities have tamed the wall and reopened the doorway to their national partners, the Washington Examiner has learned.
The transfer of President Donald Trump triggered the ending to the David and Goliath-style conflict between Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX ) and the Biden administration that led to a tense yearlong stalemate between Texas soldiers and border patrol agents at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
The move follows a traditional 12-month lock-out of national makes over a debate about the federal agents ‘ power to cut down state-installed harp line along the top of the Rio Grande.
Shelby Park was also the site where Vice President JD Vance chose this week to make his first boundary journey since January, when suddenly signaling the White House’s collaboration with Texas and change in how federal agents are being treated by Texas soldiers.
Trump visited the park last February at the height of the state’s face-off with then-President Joe Biden.
On Thursday, Border Patrol agents were seen coming and going into the park, as needed. The fencing still remains around the site, but the cooperation has greatly changed.
Selene Rodriguez, campaign director for the Secure and Sovereign Texas campaign , at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Washington Examiner that the federal law enforcement agents have been allowed back in Shelby Park with the understanding that they will not interfere in the state National Guard soldiers ‘ border security efforts.
” They are cooperating with Border Patrol agents, and they do have an understanding of what they’re not going to do … the wire-cutting, the mass-processing — just because of]federal ] policy”, said Rodriguez in a phone call.
Tensions between the state and federal governments came to a breaking point in January 2024 when the state chose to erect a 6-foot metal fence around Shelby Park and quite literally locked Border Patrol from accessing the border.
That standoff continued through 2024, and while it gained much media attention in its first few weeks, it fell off the country’s radar for the rest of the year.
The change now comes as Abbott’s administration has shifted its relationship with the federal government since Trump took office after years of Abbott publicly rebuking how the Biden administration handled the nation’s borders.
” For the past four years,  , President Biden , refused , to do  , his , job and secure the border.  , Governor Abbott , launched , Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to fill in the dangerous gaps created by President Biden’s reckless open border policies”, said Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, in a statement. ” President Biden was hostile to these border security efforts, but now we finally have a partner in the White House who is working with Texas to protect our state and nation”.
The fence still surrounds the entire park, just south of downtown Eagle Pass, the Washington Examiner observed Thursday, but Border Patrol agents may come and go as needed.
The Texas Military Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment.
Abbott and Trump team up
Trump and Abbott have had a positive relationship for years. Trump visited Abbott in Eagle Pass in February 2024.
After attending his inauguration on Jan. 20, Abbott sent a letter to Trump asking him to protect Texas’s international border and the nation. Abbott’s office said he was “working closely” with Trump and his administration to end the border crisis.
This past January, as Trump took office, Abbott signed five executive orders directing state agencies to support the Trump administration’s border security efforts — a move that signaled his willingness to work with a friendlier White House.
” The Governor continues working closely with President Trump and his Administration to end the border crisis that has plagued America for the last four years”, the governor’s office said in a statement on Jan. 24.
By mid-February, Trump sent his White House border czar, Tom Homan, down to Texas to meet with Abbott about federal and state efforts to secure the border.
The Biden border crisis
Former President Joe Biden presided over three years of record-high illegal immigrant arrests along the southern border that hit Eagle Pass, a remote town of 30, 000 residents about a two-hour drive from San Antonio.
The town had already issued an emergency declaration as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants were apprehended and released into its streets monthly beginning in mid-2023. Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. told the Washington Examiner that Biden was at fault for the recent increase in immigrants in his town.
Abbott took an active role early on in responding to the border crisis. The three-term governor launched Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar initiative that sent over 10, 000 police and National Guard soldiers to the border to provide backup to overwhelmed federal Border Patrol agents.
But Abbott’s initiatives to bolster border security and move immigrants on the streets out of Texas border towns to sanctuary cities nationwide did not go unnoticed.
State goes solo to defend border
One of Abbott’s most controversial moves was when he ordered National Guardsmen to install layers of concertina wire along the river banks of the Rio Grande in various parts of the state’s border, including Eagle Pass.
CBP, Border Patrol’s parent agency, wrote in an internal document in 2023 that the placement of razor wire led to a “high risk” of immigrants being injured while attempting to come up the river bank. It also prevented federal agents from taking immigrants into custody.
Border Patrol agents are legally required to apprehend any suspected illegal immigrant once they have crossed the border, which is in the center of the river, and arrived at the U. S. shoreline.
The concertina wire installed by the state prevented agents from getting to immigrants, including in situations where immigrants attempting to cross were drowning in the river.
Agents began to cut through the wire to make arrests, which infuriated the state.
Legal action rises
In late 2023, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX ) sued the Department of Homeland Security in the District Court for the Western District of Texas over agents ‘ destruction of state property.
Chief U. S. District Judge Alia Moses ultimately sided in November 2023 with Border Patrol.
In December, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit subsequently , granted , Texas permission to keep the wire barriers up except for emergencies.
Chaos broke out in Eagle Pass in early 2024. Last January, the state locked out Border Patrol from accessing the border through Shelby Park, a high-traffic area for illegal crossings.
In doing so, Texas took on the responsibility of maintaining the national border, claiming that the federal government was not adequately enforcing border laws.
DHS immediately sent Paxton a letter on Jan. 14 ordering the state to allow Border Patrol access to the border.
Days later, the Supreme Court ruled that the Border Patrol could cut down the wire. However, the court decision didn’t affect whether Texas must remove the fence or admit the Border Patrol.
GREG ABBOTT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CROSSINGS IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS, NEARLY CEASE UNDER TRUMP
Without access to the river and without a legal order that the state take down the fences, the standoff remained at an impasse until Trump took office in 2024.
Appeals brought by the Biden administration are expected to be dropped by Trump’s Justice Department in the near future, ending litigation.
During his presidential address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump marveled how border crossings have plummeted since he took office and signed executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration.
” The media and our friends in the Democrat party kept saying’ we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border,'” Trump said during his 100-minute address. ” But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president”.
