Texas' border standoff with Border Patrol continues as border deal within reach

The number of arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico since officials started to release monthly statistics reached an all-time high in December, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Friday.

The Border Patrol tallied 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December, up 31 percent from 191,112 in November and up 13 percent from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous all-time high, according to ABC News. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that arrests fell more than half during the first two weeks of January, which is "consistent with historical trends and enhanced enforcement." CBP previously said a crackdown by Mexican authorities contributed to the January decline, the report said. 

At loggerheads on the issue

A civil society organization, "Take Back Our Border," has announced plans to organize a convoy to the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent migrants from entering the country illegally.

"Fellow citizens and compatriots ... I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character to come to our aid with all dispatch," Pete Chambers, one of the coalition's commanders, wrote on the "Take Our Border Back" website.

The multi-state convoy is set to begin on February 3, "Take Our Border Back" wrote in a press release, Fox News has reported.

The U.S. federal government and local governments have recently been at odds over how to address the immigration issue.

On January 22, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to temporarily let U.S. Border Patrol agents cut or remove razor-wire fencing along a section of Texas' border with Mexico to prevent illegal crossings. Later in the week, a CNN team in Eagle Pass witnessed members of the Texas National Guard installing more anti-climb fencing and razor wire in the Shelby Park area, CNN reports.

On Wednesday, Texas' governor issued a statement accusing Biden of failing to fulfill his constitutional duty to protect the nation's borders, the report said.

Maximizing political interests

U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Friday that the border deal being negotiated in the U.S. Senate was the "toughest and fairest" set of reforms possible and vowed to "shut down the border" the day he signs the bill, Reuters reports.

The talks between the two parties have reached a turning point amid mounting Republican opposition. Some Republicans have set a deal on border security as a condition for further Ukraine aid, the Reuters report said.

The Republican-dominated federal government has implemented harsh border control under former U.S. President Donald Trump. To oppose Trump's extreme immigration policy, the Biden administration canceled all the border control policies during the Trump administration, which led to an influx of immigrants to the border region and continued to pressure border states, said Diao Daming, an associate professor at Renmin University of China.

These border states, particularly those dominated by Republicans, have also begun to take action that is completely different from those of the Democratic federal government, such as sending some immigrants directly to Democratic-led states to shift the conflict onto the Democrats, Diao said.

This year, facing the pressure of the upcoming general election, Republican states are more willing to use immigration issues to continuously weaken the Democratic Party's electoral situation to openly and thoroughly confront the Biden administration, which is not conducive to solving the problem, Diao explained.

This vicious cycle is essentially a confrontation between the two parties in the United States and the different levels of government they respectively control, leading to the perpetuation of problems and their continued severity, Diao said. 

(With input from agencies)