McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to take nearly two dozen Republican Texas state representatives on Thursday to a controversial park in Eagle Pass that the state has blocked from federal officials in the name of border security.
The following Texas state representatives have been invited to Shelby Park:
State Rep. Greg Bonnen
State Rep. Benjamin Bumgarner
State Rep. Dustin Burrows
State Rep. Briscoe Cain
State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione
State Rep. Mano DeAyala
State Rep. Stan Gerdes
State Rep. Cody Harris
State Rep. Cole Hefner
State Rep. Lacey Hull
State Rep. Jacey Jetton
State Rep. Stan Kitzman
State Rep. Stephanie Klick
State Rep. Jeff Leach
State Rep. Candy Noble
State Rep. Matt Shaheen
State Rep. John Smithee
State Rep. David Spiller
State Rep. Lynn Stucky
State Rep. Kronda Thimesch
State Rep. Ellen Troxclair
State Rep. Terry Wilson
Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, Texas Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Freeman Martin and Adjutant General of Texas Major Gen. Thomas Suelzer also plan to attend, according to an announcement from the governor’s office.
The group will receive a briefing on border security initiative as part of Operation Lone Star — the state’s $10 billion border security program.
A news conference is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. CST when “a border security announcement in response to President Joe Biden’s reckless open border polices,” will be given, according to the governor’s office.
Shelby Park has been blocked to federal officials since Jan. 10 when the Texas Military Department built a gate preventing entry into the city’s park, which is home to the only public boat ramp for the 28,000 residents of the border town of Eagle Pass.
Texas National Guard soldiers block the entrance to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
No Democrats have been invited to Thursday’s briefing.
Texas state Rep. Eddie Morales, Jr., a Democrat who is from Eagle Pass, told Border Report that most who are on the list have been endorsed for reelection by Abbott.
Morales criticized the briefing — the second that Abbott is holding in the span of four days at Shelby Park.
“We continue to be used as a political prop for the campaign. If you pay closer attention, the only folks that are coming are the ones that he’s endorsed. And so it’s sad that our community and what we’re currently going through and have been going through, especially on the border, it’s just being used as a political ploy and political theater and as a political prop for their campaign instead of truly asking and demanding from Congress and working towards that goal. Rather than the trip here, they need to be on the phone and communicating with their congressman, and with our U.S. senators and asking for the border bill to be passed up there in Congress.”
On Sunday, Abbott brought 14 Republican governors from across the country to the park, a day after the Take Back Our Border convoy traveled to the region and held a rally 20 miles away in the tiny hamlet of Quemado, Texas.
Morales says there were numerous arrests by Eagle Pass police and Maverick County sheriff’s deputies over the weekend and he said there even was a bank robbery on Friday — which officials have not connected to the caravan. But Morales says his normally quiet and tranquil small border community has been thrust into a global spotlight and is drawing many people from out of town and he worries why they are all coming.
An Eagle Pass police officer on Feb. 3, 2024, tells people to turn their truck around and to stay away from the street surrounding Shelby Park where many out-of-towners who came with a Take Our Border Back Convoy congregated. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
He said several people who came in the 10-hour-long caravan from Dripping Springs, Texas, and were denied entry into the Cornerstone Children’s Ranch in Quemado, where a prayer rally was held on Saturday afternoon, slept in parking lots of shopping centers and were a threat to public safety.
“We had a lot of these issues where now they were roaming the streets because they weren’t allowed to stay there at the convoy,” Morales said. “They were now in the city — lone wolves just roaming the city all night and in their vehicles, and in these high traffic areas, and in these parking lots.”
The FBI on Wednesday announced the arrest of a Tennessee man who is accused of plotting an attack on the border in Eagle Pass.
Amerika Garcia Grewal, founder of the Eagle Pass Border Vigil Coalition, says community members are scared for their safety and they want these caravans and political gatherings to stop in Eagle Pass.
“This is not what Eagle Pass is about. And the only thing that’s changed is the governor’s actions. The governor is using Eagle Pass as the stage for his political pranks,” she told Border Report on Thursday.
This is not what Eagle Pass is about. And the only thing that’s changed is the governor’s actions. The governor is using Eagle Pass as the stage for his political pranks.”
Amerika Garcia Grewal, founder of the Eagle Pass Border Vigil Coalition
She says several events that had been scheduled last weekend in Shelby Park were canceled after local police told participants they could not guarantee their safety.
“We originally had Saturday events planned. We called it ‘Meet a Local,’ and we were going to be there with a barbecue and hot dogs and we would have a chance to talk with each other, and to interact and get to know the people who are visiting in our community. But apparently, there were visitors in our community who were openly carrying long rifles and other weapons. And so the City of Eagle Pass Police Department asked us, ‘please, you know, we asked you to not hold this event.’ And so in the interest of safety, we decided not to,'” she said.
She said another prayer service they planned to hold Sunday morning in Shelby Park also was canceled after police cordoned off the area surrounding Shelby Park.
“I do worry about my safety,” Garcia Grewal said. “There was a gentleman who was arrested in Tennessee who had intent to come down here. And if you read the police report about what he wanted to do — he intended to come and kill people. He is very explicit in his language. We didn’t have these kinds of problems before Abbott started talking about open borders, and took over Shelby Park. So it’s almost as though he’s trying to incite violence here in Eagle Pass. He’s creating the problem. And we’re asking him to stop.”
“In the face of dangerous rhetoric from extremists, like Gov. Abbott, Eagle Pass residents and migrant communities uphold our core values of compassion, dignity, and justice. The governor’s actions endanger lives and undermines the principles that should guide our nation. We are united against hate, advocating for a society built on empathy, inclusion, and respect for human rights,” said resident Nancy Treviño.
Garcia Grewal says the community is sending a letter to Abbott asking him to stop coming to Eagle Pass and to reopen Shelby Park.
“We are lifelong residents of Eagle Pass. This has never happened before. We have never felt unsafe in our border town until this past weekend,” reads the letter. “Our beautiful and safe public park has been taken away from us and turned into a military-style staging area, now being used as a backdrop for political theater … We refuse to be treated as second-class citizens in our own town, in our state, in our own country. We kindly request that you relinquish control over Shelby Park and restore our rights and access to our own public space.”
The group also requested that the governor hold a town hall meeting with locals and invite community leaders.
Sandra Sanchez can be reahced at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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