There was a time when migrants arriving here would cross the Rio Grande, make their way to a gate in the border fence and turn themselves in to federal agents to claim asylum.
That was before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott turned Gate 36 into a militarized zone, fortified by rifle-toting soldiers, a fleet of Humvees and a forest of razor wire glistening in the desert sun.
"It looks like a prison," Mario Jesús Nazareño said Saturday afternoon, gazing north across the river.
The 47-year-old former boxer had just arrived at the border after traveling for weeks from his native Ecuador. He hoped to make his way to Florida, where he has relatives.
Now he and hundreds of others were stuck. The governor's aim is to prevent migrants from reaching the gate — part of the 30-foot high, steel border wall built during the Trump presidency — and thus deny them a chance to apply for political asylum or other forms of relief that could allow them to remain in the United States.
"All we want to do is give ourselves up, " said David Arau, 33, who traveled for months from his home in northern Venezuela. "But the army won't let us."
It was yet another day in the standoff at Gate 36.
Immigration enforcement has long been the domain of the federal government. But Texas is challenging that at a time when record numbers of migrants are arriving at the U.S. southern border.
Abbott has been amping up "Operation Lone Star," the crackdown he launched three years ago using National Guard troops and state police to deter illegal immigration and narcotics smuggling — and draw attention to what he argues is the Biden administration's failure to control the border.
The Texas governor has been trying to enact a statute passed last year known as S.B. 4 that would allow state and local authorities to arrest migrants simply for being in the country illegally. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which put a temporary hold on the law last week, is scheduled to hear arguments in the case early next month.
The White House considers the statute an unconstitutional infringement on federal authority — an argument that many expect to wind up before the Supreme Court.
That legal battle is playing out at a moment when the border has emerged as a major campaign issue in this national election year.
For evidence of Abbott's intensifying get-tough tactics, look no further than Gate 36, where Abbott first deployed National Guard soldiers and state police in late 2022.
Last week, after scores of migrants clashed with Texas troops, broke through the militarized zone at Gate 36 and surrendered to the Border Patrol, Abbott declared that his units had sealed the breach.
"The TX National Guard & Dept. of Public Safety quickly regained control & are redoubling the razor wire barriers," Abbott wrote on X. "DPS is instructed to arrest every illegal immigrant involved for criminal trespass & destruction of property."
Soon, a reinforced phalanx of troops in riot helmets was staring down a bedraggled array of border crossers living in an encampment on the trash-strewn U.S. bank of the Rio Grande, barely a trickle at times. Scores of makeshift tents — mostly blankets and sheets strung from wood poles — stretch for several hundred yards between the water and the razor wire.
A few yards away, heavy construction equipment pushed new sections of fencing into place. A recorded voice from a megaphone warned migrants that they could be arrested for damaging the razor wire.
Despite the tensions between the Biden administration and the Texas governor's office, Border Patrol officials said federal and state authorities coordinate closely at Gate 36 and other areas. "Obviously Operation Lone Star is a state initiative, not a federal one, but we are there and we cooperate," said one Border Patrol official who was not authorized to speak publicly.