{"id":59405,"date":"2023-08-14T14:18:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T21:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=59405"},"modified":"2023-08-14T14:18:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T21:18:48","slug":"eagle-pass-has-been-invaded-and-not-by-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=59405","title":{"rendered":"Eagle Pass Has Been Invaded, And Not by Migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This once quiet Texas town has been overrun by a swarm of agents and officers as Gov. Greg Abbot wages war on migrants along the US’s southern border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

Above: Jessie Fuentes stands during an August 7 vigil organized by residents of Eagle Pass to protest Gov. Greg Abbot\u2019s policies and to remember migrants who died crossing the Rio Grande. Fuentes is the owner of a kayak business in Eagle Pass, which he started after he retired in order to offer tours of the river. According to Manuel Ortiz, Fuentes is a deeply spiritual man and a lover of nature. He sees Abbot\u2019s barriers as a violation of life, both of the people and of the natural world. \u201cWhat the government is doing here is killing the river\u2026 They are destroying our community.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Credit: Manuel Ortiz)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you approach Eagle Pass from San Antonio, there\u2019s nothing for miles\u2026 then you hear the helicopters.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how photojournalist and Peninsula 360 founder Manuel Ortiz describes this tiny Texas city that is now the latest flash point in the ongoing fight over U.S. immigration policy. What was once\u00a0\u201cel pueblo de paso,<\/em>\u201d says Ortiz \u2013 a town to pass through \u2013 has now been invaded, and not by migrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere you go you see law enforcement officers, border patrol agents, soldiers\u201d says Ortiz, who describes setting up his laptop at a local Starbucks to join an\u00a0Aug. 4 briefing<\/a>\u00a0on the situation at the border. \u201cIt was full of police and border agents. That\u2019s why I had to set up at one of the tables outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scene Ortiz describes is the result of Texas Gov. Greg Abbot\u2019s increasingly harsh policies intended to curb the daily flow of migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border, most of them women, children, mothers, and fathers fleeing dire conditions in their home countries.<\/p>\n

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