EAGLE PASS, Texas — A group of Eagle Pass residents is demanding Texas Gov. Greg Abbott give back Shelby Park, a municipal park that is currently occupied by Texas military officials.

What You Need To Know

  • On Wednesday, a group called the Eagle Pass Border Coalition sent an open letter to Abbott, the Texas Military Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety asking for the restoration of Shelby Park

  • The public park was closed by state troopers back in January, which led to questions from community leaders including Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas

  • The letter from the Eagle Pass Border Coalition said the park has been “transformed into a military-style staging ground”

  • The group accuses Abbott of “inviting chaos and hate” into Eagle Pass, specifically citing a recent arrest of a Tennessee man who was planning an attack at the border

On Wednesday, a group called the Eagle Pass Border Coalition sent an open letter to Abbott, the Texas Military Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety asking for the restoration of Shelby Park.

The public park was closed by state troopers back in January, which led to questions from community leaders including Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas. 

Salinas said the 50-acre park, which sits along the Rio Grande, was closed without his or the city’s permission. A DPS official told Salinas that the state was taking custody of the park through a disaster declaration. Before officially taking over, state officials were using the boat ramp in the park to stage vehicles and equipment for Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar state border mission. 

The letter from the Eagle Pass Border Coalition said the park has been “transformed into a military-style staging ground.”

This past week, Gov. Abbott has held a couple of news conferences in the park, one where he was joined by 13 other Republican governors on Sunday and another with Texas state representatives on Thursday. 

The group called Sunday’s news conference a “frightening spectacle” and said Abbott’s rhetoric about border communities was “dangerous.” They accuse Abbott of “inviting chaos and hate” into Eagle Pass, specifically citing a recent arrest of a Tennessee man who was planning an attack at the border.

“Governor Abbott, you are creating a fiction and using our community’s resources to do it. You are telling a dangerous and misleading story about us, about the border, and our safe community,” said Jessie F. Fuentes, a member of the coalition.

The letter ends with the group asking for a meeting with the governor to talk about their needs as a border town.

Abbott said Sunday in Eagle Pass he plans on expanding out of Shelby Park.

“We’re not going to contain ourselves to this park. We are expanding to further areas to make sure we expand our level of deterrence and denial of illegal entry into the United States,” he said.