McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A public park in the South Texas border town of Eagle Pass has been taken over by the state to prevent migrants from illegally crossing the Rio Grande, and that will likely cancel a weekend memorial service to honor migrants who died trying to cross the Southwest border.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas, in a social media post Wednesday night, said Texas Department of Public Safety officials and Texas National Guard have put up a gate and sealed off Shelby Park.
That’s where a ceremony was to be held on Saturday afternoon to remember the migrants who died in 2023 trying to cross the Southwest border.
Over 700 wooden crosses have been put on a field in Shelby Park, near International Bridge 1, and organizers told Border Report they planned to sing and commemorate the lives lost.
Over 700 wooden crosses have been put at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, by the banks of the Rio Grande, in honor of migrants who died trying to cross the Southwest border from Mexico. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
But now the event is unlikely to be held.
Salinas said he was told by DPS the park will remain closed “indefinitely.”
“They are taking full control, custody of Shelby Park,” Salinas said. “In talking to the state, they say their mission is to prevent another mass amount of people from crossing, so now they have this operation.”
However, Salinas notes that the number of migrants trying to illegally cross the border from Piedras Negras, Mexico, has dropped significantly in the past several days. Officials say it’s down from over 4,000 per day to about 400 per day.
The Hope Mission Border migrant shelter is practically empty, Eagle Pass Border Vigil Founder Amerika Garcia Grewal told Border Report earlier this week in the border town of under 30,000 residents.
She organized Saturday’s ceremony and said she’s stunned that the park is now closed.
“There’s no access to the cross memorial, there’s no access to the downtown parking. We have no access whatsoever, and we have no explanation,” Garcia Grewal told Border Report on Thursday.
In a statement to Border Report, Gov. Greg Abbott’s spokeswoman Renae Eze said, “Texas is holding the line at our southern border with miles of additional razor wire and anti-climb barriers to deter and repel the record-high levels of illegal immigration invited by President Biden’s reckless open border policies. Instead of enforcing federal immigration laws, the Biden administration allows unfettered access for Mexican cartels to smuggle people into our country. Texas will continue to deploy Texas National Guard soldiers, DPS troopers, and more barriers, utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to President Biden’s ongoing border crisis.”
Abbott issued a border disaster declaration in 2021, which he renewed in December. It includes Maverick County, where Eagle Pass is located.
“I can’t believe this is happening in the United States of America in the year 2024,” Garcia Grewal said.
She noted that Shelby Park last year was turned over to state officials by Salinas, but the order was revoked.
In his Facebook post, Salinas said “This is not the City of Eagle Pass denying people access to the park. This is the state saying that, using this emergency declaration. They have this mission going on. When asked how long this mission will take place they told me it is indefinitely.”
Garcia Grewal says families use the park for holiday and birthday celebrations, and the large parking lot offers free parking spaces for residents who want to walk over the bridge to Piedras Negras, or shop in the downtown district.
“We’ve lost our park. We have lost 35 acres of access to our park, and it’s the only public boat ramp” in the city, she said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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