Abbott vows to defy Biden administration over Texas island

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to defy the Biden administration after being ordered by a federal agency to demolish a building on an island that local authorities say has become a hotspot for Mexican drug cartels.

In a letter Monday to President Biden and Vice President Harris, Abbott said the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (US IBWC) has asked the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to restore Fronton Island to its “pre-construction condition.”

Fronton Island is located on the U.S.-Mexico border on the Rio Grande. The 170-hectare island has been the site of numerous cartel activities, including shootings and illegal immigration.

“For years, the cartels have operated through the dense vegetation and bullet-riddled buildings along the river on Fronton Island to stage illegal incursions, surveil state and federal law enforcement, stockpile weapons, plant explosives, evade capture, and wage open warfare against rival cartels and against state and federal officials,” Abbott wrote.

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

“In an incident described in the quotes 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, Texas soldiers found an explosive device 'buried amidst a cache of weapons and ammunition for semi-automatic rifles.'”

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

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers recently received permission from local authorities to patrol and police the island.

“Law enforcement found ammunition and suspicious devices there. And we feel that given the crisis at the border, it was really important to make sure Texas law enforcement had access to these islands so we could help secure our border,” Dawn Buckingham, Texas's land law commissioner, previously told Fox News Digital.

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This map shows 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 into Texas from Mexico. Texas National Guard soldiers and law enforcement officers have also erected barbed wire fences and other barriers along the border and deployed buoys on the Rio Grande to make crossing more difficult.

In addition, the GLO has built two sediment bridges, laid barbed wire and “cleared” vegetation on the island, Abbott said. The U.S. IBWC, the American partner of the International Boundary and Water Commission, is a joint body of the U.S. and Mexican governments for regulating the southern border.

“The U.S. Division of the International Boundary and Water Commission maintains that Fronton Island is federal property and that the State of Texas has undertaken activities without our permission,” the organization told Fox News Digital. “Our responsibility under the 1970 treaty with Mexico is to monitor construction along the Rio Grande river plain to ensure the safety of communities, the flow of the river and the maintenance of the border with Mexico. We again ask Texas to meet with us to discuss any projects they plan on land under our jurisdiction.”

However, Abbott said the island belongs to Texas.

“Their open border policies have allowed an invasion of the southern border and encouraged criminal activity that threatens the lives of Texas police officers, soldiers and citizens,” he said. “Yet in the wake of a crisis of its own making, the federal government refuses to enforce federal laws – even in dangerous areas like Fronton Island.”

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

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The plan led to clashes between Abbott and the Biden administration. Texas secured the island in October, arguing that it was being used as a base by Mexican drug cartels.

“For years, Fronton Island was overrun by violence. Texas secured it against the cartels,” Abbott wrote on X. “The Biden-Harris administration is now demanding that Fronton Island be restored to its former state. Today, I told Biden and Harris that Texas will not comply.”