DOJ Filing Shows Texas Did Not Stop Border Patrol from Saving Drowning Migrants

Three migrants attempting to enter the United States Friday night had already drowned when Texas’s National Guard turned U.S. Border Patrol Agents away from the Rio Grande, according to a recent Department of Justice filing.

Robert Danley, lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection field agent for the broader Del Rio area, wrote in a statement included with the filing that a Mexican official notified the U.S. Friday night that three migrants — a woman and two children — had drowned roughly an hour earlier while traversing the river.

A Border Patrol official then went to the Shelby Park Boat Ramp entrance, where three Texas guardsmen told him they had been ordered not to let Border Patrol agents into the area.

The filing contradicts earlier mainstream reporting and statements made by Representative Henry Cuellar (D., Texas), as well as a cease-and-desist letter to Texas attorney general Ken Paxton written by U.S. Department of Homeland Security general counsel Jonathan Meyer ordering Texas to stop preventing Border Patrol officials from accessing a section of the state’s border with Mexico.