Texas National Guard troops deployed to El Paso have constructed a razor-wire barrier along the Rio Grande and have been blocking people from making unauthorized crossings into the United States amid a migrant surge and legal back-and-forth about ending Title 42, a Trump-era rule that helped stem the tide of illegal immigration.
Acting under orders from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, several hundred soldiers that are part of a “contingency border force” have set up along the river channel separating El Paso from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, with the aim of preventing people from crossing the border illegally.
“This morning, service members deployed to El Paso, Texas constructed a triple-strand concertina barrier near the border to secure the area from illegal crossings,” the Texas Military Department, which oversees the state’s National Guard, said in a Dec. 20 statement….