EAGLE PASS, Texas — Shelby Park, which has been the epicenter of the state’s border security effort, has been reopened to the public.
Shelby Park’s reopening comes a little over a year after the nearly 50-acre municipal park along the Rio Grande was closed to the public by state troopers back in January 2024.
On Sunday, Texas withdrew its state National Guard troops from the formerly militarized gates closed to citizens and journalists the last 15 months.
“The state turned our park into a war zone, then retreated into their air-conditioned tents on the floodplain and pretended everything was normal,” said Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation.
At the height of the immigration crisis during President Joe Biden’s administration, Shelby Park saw an unprecedented number of asylum seekers and migrants illegally crossing the Rio Grande from neighboring Mexico.
According to Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard, over 531,700 immigrants who crossed the border illegally were detained with another 51,800 criminal arrests made. Those numbers have not been independently verified.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas said at the time of the closure that it was done without the city’s permission, and a Texas Department of Public Safety official told him the state was taking custody of the park through a disaster declaration.
Salinas told Spectrum News on Monday that Shelby Park was opened a few days ago, but he didn’t get any notification from the state. Salinas said he reached out to state officials, and he would send an official notification of the park reopening once he has one.
Despite the lack of an official notification, Salinas said people are already using the park, and that it is safe to be there.
A spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott’s office confirmed the reopening of the park and credited it to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“Because of President Trump’s swift and decisive leadership in securing the border, illegal crossings in Eagle Pass are at a record low. As a result, there is no longer a need for Texas to maintain northern-facing barriers, though the state will maintain barriers and a presence on the border itself,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Texas held the line against the Biden-Harris border crisis for the past four years, and Governor Abbott looks forward to continuing to work closely with President Trump and his administration to protect our state and the nation.”
During the Biden administration, Shelby Park became a point of contention between federal and state officials.
The Biden administration claimed Texas officials were barring U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering the park, and Abbott responded to Biden’s requests for access to the riverfront park by saying states have a “right of self-defense.”
The seizure of Shelby Park was a part of the state’s multi-billion dollar border mission, Operation Lone Star.
