AUSTIN — Texas has seized city land in a move that Eagle Pass leaders have described as an unforeseen “takeover” as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) attempts to fence out all federal law enforcement from the international boundary, where state personnel are turning back illegal immigrants undeterred by Border Patrol.

In a series of events that unfolded quietly and as a shock to three federal agents in Eagle Pass who spoke with the Washington Examiner Friday morning, the state moved in late Wednesday and Thursday and sealed off city park land and a city-owned golf course from federal employees, including law enforcement.

The Biden administration took immediate action, with the Justice Department filing a memo early Friday asking the Supreme Court to weigh in. The DOJ said that hours after it had filed a separate memo Wednesday evening, Texas began to seize control of Eagle Pass as the state and federal government battle over whether Border Patrol may cut through state-installed concertina wire.

The city land seizure was intended to block federal agents, therefore allowing state officials to turn away illegal immigrants and not allow those who cross to be arrested and likely released into the United States.

“Border Patrol learned that Texas National Guard members had begun erecting new concertina wire barriers, adding to others along an approximately 2.5-mile stretch of the border at issue in this case. Texas also erected new fencing, located further inland than the original concertina wire,” DOJ Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the Friday memo.

“That fencing further restricts Border Patrol’s ability to reach the river in particular areas. The relevant stretch includes the area of Shelby Park, which contains the boat ramp from which Border Patrol routinely launches the patrol boats it uses on this stretch of the Rio Grande,” the DOJ wrote. “It also includes the staging area that Border Patrol has used to evaluate and begin inspecting migrants that it has apprehended along this stretch of the border.”

Photos taken by the DOJ and included in the memo show Texas National Guard members guarding entrances onto the land where Border Patrol agents would normally pass through to apprehend immigrants who come across the Rio Grande and onto the riverbank.

“Texas’s new actions since the government’s filing demonstrate an escalation of the State’s measures to block Border Patrol’s ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies,” Prelogar wrote.

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The city, which has long supported Abbott’s border security measures and complained about the Biden administration’s lack of help throughout the crisis, described being caught off guard by Texas’s move and said its counsel is looking into the matter.

“Our Mayor Rolando Salinas, Jr. was notified by the Texas Department of Public Safety that the State of Texas was taking control of Shelby Park. The decision was made as part of Governor Abbott’s Emergency Declaration. The City of Eagle Pass played no role in the decision of the takeover of Shelby Park by the State of Texas,” the city said in a statement. “Currently, our City Attorney is looking further into this matter. The City of Eagle Pass will provide updates as they become available.”