Border Dispute: What You Need to Know

By Viviana Sanchez, Skyline Reporter

ALPINE - Sul Ross State University’s Rio Grande Campus in Eagle Pass, Texas, currently bears witness to a state and federal confrontation at the Texas-Mexico border. 

The once quiet and small city of Eagle Pass is now filled with razor wire fences, protests, and state and federal guards patrolling the area. A surge in migrant arrivals has prompted Governor Greg Abbott to act in response to what he describes as a "crisis" at the border. 

In the past several months, Governor Abbott and the federal government have clashed over their differing immigration and illegal border crossing policies. Abbott has been an advocate for stricter immigration measures, stationing State Troopers and Texas Army National Guard Soldiers in Shelby Park along the Rio Grande River. 

In a direct provocation to the Biden Administration, which under law has sole authority securing border security, Abbott has proposed criminalizing illegal immigration as a state offense, granting Texas law enforcement the authority to arrest individuals they believe have entered the country illegally. 

Customs and Border Protection is currently seeking to place almost 50 miles of lights along the border near El Paso, raising concerns about the environment and its impact on the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve. Covering over 15,000 square miles, the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve is the largest International Dark Sky Association (IDA)-certified reserve in the world and the first reserve to cross an international boundary.  

While there aren't any current plans to install lights at the Eagle Pass border, there are worries about the potential for light pollution affecting the Big Bend Region.