Even without having come into force, the Texas anti-immigrant law has left more uncertainty in the already unstable habitat of the border between the United States and Mexico.
A lone Mexican National Guard soldier sat Thursday in the shade of a tree facing the river that separates the two countries.
“There if they take it seriously…” said the agent, who did not reveal his name for fear of reprisals.
“Here it seems like mothers are worth it.
They don't even put a little fence for us,” he added.
On the opposite bank, at Eagle Pass, hundreds of meters of barbed wire form a thick metal undergrowth that protects a wall made of stacked containers.
Law enforcement officers, armed to the teeth, monitor the river from above.
Behind them is a municipal field.
The American dream begins on a golf course.
“The order we have is to detain the migrants,” says the guard.
“Sometimes we don't reach them because in two seconds they already jumped into the water,” he says.
At noon, the Rio Grande is the opposite.
It's hard to believe that so many lives have ended there.
The presence of a white cross buried in the wetland seems to change the opinion of skeptics.
It is named after Jesús Rubén de León Escamilla, who drowned in August of last year.
Photography:
Hundreds of migrants overwhelm Border Patrol in El Paso
Crossings to the United States are made when the sun begins to rise.
“They look for him and look for a gap through the barbed wire until they find him somewhere,” says the soldier, who has been in Ciudad Acuña, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, for 24 years, and who has been guarding the Piedas Negras crossing since January. about 100 kilometers southeast of its base.
This has become one of the epicenters of the United States immigration crisis, especially due to tensions between the Republican Government of Texas and the Democratic Administration headed by Joe Biden.
Texas has about 2,000 kilometers of border with Mexico, more than half of the total line that the country shares with its neighbor.
The local government has done more than build a wall of containers, place kilometers of barbed wire and buoys over the river to stop the migratory wave.
The authorities intend to create a huge legal fence with one of the toughest anti-immigrant laws in the country in more than a decade.
Greg Abbott signed the rule, known as Senate Bill 4 (SB4), in December.
This should have come into effect on March 5, but a legal offensive by social organizations and the Biden Executive stopped it.
The rule considers illegal entry into Texas from Mexico as an offense that can be punished by six months in prison.
The penalty is toughened for repeat offenders, who could be sentenced to two to twenty years in prison.
The legislation allows local security agencies to request papers and make arrests practically anywhere, with the exception of schools, churches, hospitals and health centers.
The document review can be in any county, even hundreds of kilometers from the border.
Congressman David Spiller, one of the authors of the law, believes that 95% of arrests will be made in a strip no further than 80 kilometers from the river.
A group of migrants try to break the concertina wire in El Paso, Texas, this week.Justin Hamel (REUTERS)
The most controversial aspect of the law is that it implements a system where detainees are brought before state judges, who initiate an expulsion process to Mexico regardless of whether they are Mexican citizens or citizens of other countries.
The Mexican Government has rejected the rule and has assured this week that it will not accept any repatriates sent by the Texas authorities.
A federal judge stopped the rule from coming into force at the beginning of March, considering that it violates federal laws.
The man assured that the Executive Branch maintains “complete discretion” over who should be deported.
Texas appealed the decision, which elevated the case to the federal Fifth Circuit of Appeals.
This despite the fact that the Supreme Court allowed the law to be in force for a few hours in a procedural tug-of-war.
The first oral arguments were held this week before the appeals panel, located in New Orleans.
“It seems to me that this is the first time that a State claims to have the right to expel illegal immigrants.
“It is not a power that has been executed by the States, right?” Judge Priscilla Richman questioned Texas lawyer Aaron Nielson.
He assured that they have the right to defend themselves and arrest people who violate the rules in their territory.
“Texas has decided that we are the epicenter of this crisis.
We are the first line of defense and we will do something about it,” Nielson assured remotely.
The members of the Fifth Circuit wanted to know during the hearing how Texas would proceed with an illegal immigrant who arrives in Texas from another State or from Canada.
“Honestly, I confess that I don't know,” Nielson admitted.
Judge Richman also noted that nowhere in the law stipulates that police officers must hand over detained migrants to federal immigration authorities.
Only one of the judges on the panel was in favor of letting the law go into effect.
It was Judge Andrew Oldham, who came to the position appointed by Donald Trump.
The next hearing will take place on April 2.
The rule seems destined to reach the Supreme Court, where it will be evaluated by the conservative majority that Trump formed in his Government.
“I believe that under no circumstances will the Court allow Texas to deport people, so it seems to me that it will be annulled.
It seems impossible to me even for this Court,” says Marshall Fritz, the Immigration Director of the Emerson Collective, a progressive philanthropic organization.
However, the specialist contemplates a possibility that right-wing judges will allow Texas authorities to file charges against undocumented immigrants.
“Five years ago it would not have even been possible to imagine, but today it is a feasible question,” he adds.
Donald Trump, during a visit to the border, at the end of February.
Go Nakamura (REUTERS)
The law has not given certainty even to those who agree with it.
“It is unlikely that changes will be seen overnight,” said Brad Coe, the sheriff of the border county of Kinney, which has about 20 kilometers of border with Mexico.
“As in other cases, our agents will continue to need probable cause or flagrancy before proceeding,” said the head of the small police force, made up of 13 people.
Texas has 31 counties on the border.
The police forces of these regions support SB4, but have little interest in their organizations adding immigration to their daily tasks when the Border Patrol operates in the area.
“This has caused us a roller coaster of emotions,” says Araceli Martínez, from the Camino a Casa shelter, in Piedras Negras.
The site has space for 20 minors, ten men and ten women.
Only two, of Venezuelan nationality, have the possibility of reaching the United States in the coming months.
All others will be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Many migrants come to this city because along the way they hear that this city is safer to make the crossing compared to other cities on the border.
Still, Road Home looks like a prison painted in bright colors from the outside.
It has high walls crowned with concertina and large bars.
Martínez assures that human traffickers, known as polleros, have tried to enter to remove minors.
“Boys are money to them,” she says.
News of the Texas law has reached this city.
In another migrant shelter in the center, Honduran Víctor Najar, 22, says that he prefers to wait a bit for the waters to calm down to reactivate his trip north.
He has been in Mexico since February and says that some uncles are waiting for him in North Carolina.
“I want to cross, but I don't want to end up in prison,” he says.
Najar, originally from the Choluteca area, has started the procedures to request asylum in the United States, but these are taking a while and he is already “itchy” to be on the other side to start a new life.
For now, the Texas authorities have achieved their objective.
Victor has hit the legal wall out of pure fear.
Follow all the international information on
and
X
, or in
our weekly newsletter
.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_