After drone footage showing Border Patrol Agents had opened a gate on private property previously shut and locked by the Texas National Guard went viral, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is pointing the finger at the Biden administration for encouraging this prohibited activity.
The group of illegal migrants had waded across the Rio Grand and walked up the riverbank of Eagle Pass, Texas, where they were greeted by a 6-foot tall metal fence erected by the state to prevent migrants from slipping past the troops of the Texas National Guard.
The footage shows Texas National Guard troops standing by but not allowing migrants entry through a gate in the fence — erected on private property. A short while later, Border Patrol agents arrive, one agent unlocks the gate, holds it open, and allows migrants to proceed through.
The footage — posted by Fox News —caused quite a furor on social media, with many wondering whether Border Patrol Agents had acted at the behest of the Biden administration when opening the gate.
The former national chief of Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, explained that agents shouldn’t have unlocked the gate as it was on private property.
Now a senior fellow for border security at conservative think tank Texas Policy Foundation, Scott explained that “Border Patrol has the legal authority under 8 U.S.C. 1357 to go onto people’s private property within 25 miles of the border for the sole and exclusive purpose of patrolling the border, but they do not have the right to knowingly allow anyone onto someone else’s private property.”
Reports surfaced that the landowner allows Border Patrol “to operate on his land and to process migrants at that location,” according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director for the American Immigration Council.
As the furor over the actions of the Border Patrol agents continued, Abbott added his opinion to the debate charging that “While Texas secures the border, the federal government is enabling illegal immigration.”
He continued his criticism, saying, “Biden’s open border policies caused this crisis. The federal government must do its job & fix it.”
