Abbott vows to defy Biden administration over Texas island

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to defy the Biden administration after a federal agency ordered him to remove buildings on an island that local officials say has become a hotbed for Mexican drug cartels.

In a letter Monday to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Abbott wrote that the U.S. Division of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) has directed the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to restore Fronton Island to “pre-construction conditions.”

Fronton Island is located on the U.S.-Mexico border on the Rio Grande. The 420-acre island has seen a variety of cartel activity, including gun battles and illegal immigration.

“For years, the cartels ran ‘wild’ in the ‘thick vegetation’ and ‘bullet-riddled structures’ of Fronton Island along the river to stage illegal entries, spy on state and federal law enforcement, hide weapons, plant explosives, evade capture, and openly wage war against rival cartels and state and federal agents,” Abbott wrote.

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This map shows the location of Fronton Island in the Rio Grande. (Google Maps/Texas General Land Office)

“On one occasion, as noted below, authorities found ‘six assault rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, 20 ammunition magazines for weapons of various sizes, and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives’ hidden on the island,” he added.

“At another location, soldiers in Texas found an improvised explosive device ‘buried in a pile of weapons and semi-automatic rifle ammunition.'”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to oppose the Biden administration over an island in the Rio Grande. (Mega/Getty Images)

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers have recently been granted permission by local authorities to patrol and monitor the island.

“Law enforcement did find some munitions and suspicious devices. And we felt that with the border crisis, it was really important to make sure that Texas law enforcement has access to these islands so that we can help secure our border,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham previously told Fox News Digital.

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A map of Fronton Island on the Rio Grade between Texas and Mexico. (Governor Greg Abbott)

In 2021, Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, an aggressive effort to combat the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico into Texas. Texas National Guard troops and law enforcement officers have also built razor wire and other barriers along the border and placed buoys on the Rio Grande to make it more difficult to cross.

In addition, the GLO has built two sediment bridges, installed barbed wire and “cleared vegetation” on the island, Abbott said. The USIBWC, the U.S. partner in the International Boundary and Water Commission, is a joint body created by the U.S. and Mexican governments to regulate the southern border.

The Biden administration said the island is part of federal land. Abbott, however, said the island is owned by Texas.

“Your open border policies have enabled an invasion of the southern border and encouraged criminal activity that threatens the lives of Texas law enforcement officers, soldiers, and citizens,” he said. “Yet, in the wake of a crisis of its own making, the federal government has refused to enforce federal law — even in dangerous areas like Fronton Island.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott’s office, the White House and the IBWC.

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The effort has led to clashes between Abbott and the Biden administration. Texas secured the island in October, saying it had been used as a base by Mexican drug cartels.

“For years, Fronton Island has been overrun with violence. Texas has kept it safe from the cartels,” Abbott wrote on X. “The Biden-Harris Admin is now demanding that Fronton Island be returned to its former state. Today I told Biden & Harris that Texas will not comply.”