AUSTIN, Texas — New details have emerged about five immigrants who struggled to cross the border into Eagle Pass over the weekend, ultimately resulting in the deaths of three people and creating a firestorm between the Biden administration and Texas.

The Jan. 12 drowning of a mother and her two children set off a blame game between the federal government and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX). The White House said the Abbott administration “blocked” federal agents from responding to emergencies at the border.

In a new memo that the Biden administration’s Justice Department filed in the Supreme Court late Monday, Border Patrol’s Chief Patrol Agent of the Del Rio Sector Robert Manley offered new information about how federal agents tried to help immigrants in light of Abbott’s taking control of city land on the Eagle Pass border last week and evicting federal law enforcement.

A statement provided by the White House on Sunday only mentioned three immigrants who drowned and that “Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance.”

New information from Manley revealed that Border Patrol agents were already aware that the three had died an hour before they showed up to the gate, seeking admission to the river, and that the federal agents had told the state soldiers that two more immigrants were in distress at that time on the U.S. side of the river and needed help.

Manley said at 9 p.m. Jan. 12, a representative of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration agency contacted Border Patrol in his region and alerted them that two immigrants were in distress on the U.S. side of the river by the Shelby Park Boat Ramp.

The Mexican official also told an acting supervisory agent at Border Patrol’s Eagle Pass Station that a woman and two children had drowned in the same area at approximately 8 p.m. that evening.

The acting Border Patrol supervisor immediately responded to the Shelby Park entrance gate, which was closed and guarded by state employees who had been instructed not to allow federal employees inside.

“From the outside of the gate, the Acting Border Patrol Supervisor advised three guardsmen from the Texas National Guard (TNG) through the gate that three migrants drowned earlier in the evening and two were in distress on the U.S. side of the river,” Manley wrote in his accounting of the incident. “The gate remained closed during the conversation, and the TNG guardsmen advised the Acting Supervisory Border Patrol Agent through the gate that they had been ordered not to let Border Patrol in through the gate or give Border Patrol access to Shelby Park.”

The Border Patrol supervisor asked the guards to speak with a superior and was connected with the Texas National Guard staff sergeant by cellphone. The Border Patrol official shared the same information to the National Guard staff sergeant by speakerphone and was told that “Border Patrol was not allowed to enter, even in emergency situations, but TNG would send a guardsman to look into the situation.”

The Texas Military Department released a second statement on Sunday that it had commenced a review of the incident.

“Claims that TMD prevented Border Patrol from saving the lives of drowning migrants are wholly inaccurate,” the TMD said. “Soldiers confirmed that when Border Patrol requested access to the park they stated that Mexican Authorities had already recovered the bodies of two drowned migrants.

“Border Patrol specifically requested access to the park to secure two additional migrants that were presumed to have traveled with the deceased, though had crossed to the boat ramp,” the TMD continued. “Two migrants were apprehended by TMD, with one turned over to DPS and the other transferred to EMS in response to initial hypothermic conditions. Additionally, TMD remained engaged with lights, night vision goggles, and thermals to ensure that no additional migrants were in the river or in distress.”

But Manley maintained that Border Patrol was “unable to visually monitor” the situation or the park because agents remain banned from the vicinity.

DOJ Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who wrote the Monday memo, said the impact of Border Patrol not being allowed to patrol the border during these specific incidents remains unknown.

“It is impossible to say what might have happened if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area — including through its surveillance trucks that assisted in monitoring the area,” Prelogar wrote. “At the very least, however, Border Patrol would have had the opportunity to take any available steps to fulfill its responsibilities and assist its counterparts in the Mexican government with undertaking the rescue mission. Texas made that impossible.”

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Texas has permitted some federal officials access since the DOJ issued its first memo to the court last Friday. The state allowed Border Patrol to use a boat ramp in the park to be present in the water, which Prelogar said was inadequate for what the state ought to have done.

“Although the boat ramp now enables Border Patrol to patrol along the river, at least during daylight hours, Texas is impeding Border Patrol agents from accessing the land on the other side of the concertina wire for patrolling, deploying surveillance trucks, and responding to emergencies,” Prelogar said. “And the events described above illustrate why that is profoundly problematic: Even when there is an ongoing emergency of the type that the court of appeals expressly excluded from the injunction, Texas stands in the way of Border Patrol patrolling the border, identifying and reaching any migrants in distress, securing those migrants, and even accessing any wire that it may need to cut or move to fulfill its responsibilities.”