Gov. Abbott Defies Feds in Texas Border Battle

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott promised to defy a directive from a federal agency that ordered him to suspend and dismantle construction on Fronton Island and restore the area to its original condition, Newsweek reported Tuesday.

Abbott on Monday sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) told the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to restore Fronton Island to "pre-construction conditions."

"For years, Fronton Island was overrun with violence. Texas secured it against the cartels.  The Biden-Harris Admin now demands that Fronton Island return to its prior conditions.  Today, I told Biden & Harris that Texas will not comply," Abbott posted on X on Monday.

Fronton Island is situated on along the U.S.-Mexico border and has long been known to authorities as "an area for cartel smuggling operations involving narcotics, weapons, money and high-value individuals. The densely wooded area provided concealment for trans-national criminal activity, and has been a problem for decades according to law enforcement familiar with the area."

Abbott said in his letter that for years cartels were "running rampant" in Fronton Island's heavy vegetation and "bullet-pocked structures along the river to stage illegal entries, surveil state and federal law enforcement, stash weapons, plant explosives, evade apprehension, and engage in open warfare against rival cartels and against state and federal officers."

In November 2023, Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to secure the island as part of Operation Lonestar and installed miles of razor wire, cleared brush, and built roads for border patrol vehicles.

"On one occasion recounted in the citations below, authorities found 'six assault rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, 20 ammunition magazines for various-sized weapons and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives' hidden on the Island. On another, Texas soldiers found an improvised explosive device 'buried amid a stash of weapons and semi-automatic rifle ammunition,'" Abbott continued in his letter.

In April 2024, the USIBWC ordered that GLO "return Fronton Island to preconstruction conditions" suggesting that the alterations could alter the flow of the Rio Grande River.  The agency is the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission founded by the government of Mexico and the U.S. and run by the State Department.

Abbott and the Biden administration have been in constant odds over the southern border since 2021. In August, Abbott said on NewsNation that border problem was "solved" in Texas.

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