EAGLE PASS – From a shaded bench on Main Street, next to the city park the state of Texas took over in January, as part of his border operations, Jessie Fuentes sometimes likes to count the Humvees, Department of Public Safety SUVs and unmarked trucks driven by uniformed soldiers that pass him by.
Fuentes admitted that he often loses count.
“You never want your community to turn into a militarized zone,” said Fuentes, a retired teacher who now runs a business offering kayak and canoe tours and paddle lessons on the Rio Grande. “It makes you feel hopeless.”
Because the governor Greg Abbott shot Operation Lone Star In March 2021, Texas sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border — along with DPS soldiers. The soldiers patrolled the riverbank with drones and weapons, and installed countless rolls of barbed wire along its banks and at least once spied on migrants via WhatsAppRecently they have turned to crowd control, trying to stop groups of migrants who have breached state barriers and shooting pepper balls to discourage crossing through crossings.
To support the operation, 18 other states have sent about 2,400 troops to the Texas-Mexico border over the past two years, Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer, commander of the Texas National Guard, testified at a recent hearing before a state legislative committee.
“In this crisis, every state has become a border state,” Suelzer said.
Texas’ unprecedented efforts to secure the border contradict law and court rulings that say immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
In many ways, Eagle Pass has become the focal point state’s efforts to strengthen the border. Texas is building 80-acre military base with a capacity of more than 2,000 National Guard troops. The state also took over Shelby Park, where Main Street begins, against the city’s wishes and built a wall of shipping containers strung with barbed wire along the river.
Residents of the town of about 30,000 have mixed feelings about being surrounded by the military. Some agree with state Republican leaders that the military — mostly standing on the riverbank, staring out at Mexico — is needed to keep migrants from entering the country. Others see it as an unwanted state invasion of their tightly knit community.
Either way, they have no say in the state’s actions in Eagle Pass, where Fuentes traces his family’s 240-year history.
He used to give tours from the public boat ramp at Shelby Park, but those are now constrained to infrequent trips because the state restricts access to the park, he said. Where he once highlighted the beauty where he grew up, he now mostly shows visitors the state’s installations — a floating river barrier meant to prevent migrants from crossing, rows of gleaming concertina wire — and talks about how they affect the river.
“To me, it’s just annoying that they’re ruining everything,” he said. “It’s our ecosystem. It gives us life.”
At Eagle Grocery near Shelby Park, Benny Rodriguez, 80, who runs the store with his wife, said he supports the National Guard.
“They mean well, they want to do a good job, and we wish them luck,” he said. “All we want is for Eagle Pass to continue its efforts, provide jobs, and for everyone to be able to earn a good living.”
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said neither he nor his 34 deputies interact with the National Guard troops. Their presence in the community benefits the town when the soldiers are off duty and spending money at restaurants and stores, he said.
Still, he’d like to see the state get rid of Shelby Park. The city can no longer hold events there, people can no longer relax on the riverfront and kids can no longer play soccer, he said.
“They need to be returned to the city,” Schmerber said.
In and around the 47-acre park, National Guard soldiers stand guard at the entrance gate and walk along the riverbank, where families used to fish and relax in the open spaces near the water. Now, the riverside silence is occasionally broken by the roar of airboats and the occasional whir of helicopter blades as soldiers patrol the area by water and air.
Eagle Pass was a hotspot for migrant crossings in December, when thousands of migrants entered the country through the city during a record migration across the southern border. But fewer migrants have tried to enter the country through Eagle Pass since then. Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, the biggest drop was recorded in encounters with migrants earlier this year compared to their counterparts elsewhere on the southwestern border.
While encounters in the Del Rio sector dropped 66% from May 2023 to May 2024, the El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico, saw a smaller decline of 10% during the same period.
Earlier this year, vast groups of migrants regularly gathered on the Mexican shore of a desiccated riverbed in El Paso, waiting for a chance to cut through barbed wire and cross so they could surrender and seek asylum. After two mass attacks on a single border gate this spring, state police arrested hundreds of migrants and charged them with misdemeanor rioting — an unusual move that currently being considered by local courts.
National Guard soldiers also he started shooting pepper balls near the migrants in an attempt to break up the groups and deter them from approaching the border barriers, according to the Guard command. Soldiers are trained not to fire projectiles at migrants that contain a chemical that causes irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, but migrants in Ciudad Juarez say they have been hit by the ammunition, which has left blisters and bruises.
In the hours between dusk and dawn on a recent Monday, troops flew drones overhead, searching for migrants hiding in the undergrowth. Others patrolled on foot, peering across the river, where empty gallons of water, shoes and bras left behind by migrants on their way north littered the desiccated riverbed.
Several migrants crawled into the U.S. after several men used bolt cutters to cut a hole in a concertina wire. A moment later, a truck appeared with a siren wailing.
“Go back inside! Hurry,” a National Guard soldier shouted to dozens of migrants who approached the wire.
“Go back to Venezuela,” another shouted.
Most of the group quickly retreated.
Uriel J. García contributed to the preparation of this article.
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This article was written and published in cooperation with: Texas Tribunea nonpartisan media organization that informs and engages Texans on public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
