In Eagle Pass, Texas, a Round of ‘Combat Golf’

At the center of a fierce legal battle over immigration enforcement lies a city park along the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

In January, Gov. Greg Abbott directed National Guard troops to take over the park, known as Shelby Park, to intercept migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico. Now, at a place where residents have often gathered for picnics and play, Humvees guard makeshift gates. Coils of barbed wire bristle all around. Men and women in camouflage patrol the perimeter.

Still, there is one group of people who remain free to enter Shelby Park, as always, with no questions asked: golfers.

The Eagle Pass municipal golf course, perched on a slope that descends to the river, has continued to welcome players even as its surroundings have increasingly resembled an urban conflict zone. Anyone can play its nine holes, for a $20 weekend fee that includes clubs.

Its continued operation is one of the stark contrasts of life in this small section of the border, where desperate migrants surrender to Border Patrol in lush pecan orchards, and Texas law enforcement officers, locked in a tense standoff with the federal government, are also careful not to damage the golf course greens.

Upon arriving at the course, it is immediately apparently that there is something different about this one: Golf carts are lined up along a towering black fence that runs along either side of the golf shop. The structure was erected by the federal government more than a decade ago, long before the recent surges of migrants, to help maintain security on the U.S. border.

From the first tee, a layered vista unfurls. On the Mexican side, painted murals can be seen in Piedras Negras rising up near the riverbank. On the American side, there is a wall of rusting shipping containers topped with concertina wire along the water. The containers have been placed there in increasing numbers by Texas over the last two years, part of Mr. Abbott’s border security program known as Operation Lone Star.

The risk associated with an errant shot grows as the course descends closer to the river bank, where National Guard troops are most active.

Alongside a fairway one recent day, a white pickup truck rattled along, tugging a trailer full of concertina wire. Golfers said they had grown used to the presence of military vehicles and the new hazards they introduced.

“My friend hit a car once,” said Rolf Rothen, a Swiss immigrant who works as the executive chef at a casino in Eagle Pass. He said one of the state’s vehicles happened to be patrolling near the course. “It’s OK.”

By the containers, discarded wire sat in a rough bundle, with pieces of tattered clothing belonging to migrants still caught in its sharp spikes. Mr. Rothen said he had knocked a ball into a patch of concertina wire on another occasion.

“I left it there,” he said.

A pair of holes run from south to north along the river, where the tall reeds that once rose up along the riverbank, providing an effective hiding place for unauthorized migrants, have been chopped down and replaced by the shipping containers.

The third tee sits near the columns of one of the two international bridges that connect Eagle Pass to Mexico. Until recently, the shady area under the bridge had been used by federal Border Patrol agents as a staging ground for detaining and processing large numbers of migrants.

But that changed after Texas took over Shelby Park and banned the Border Patrol from using it, complaining that federal agents were helping migrants cross by cutting through the state’s concertina wire. Texas and the federal government are currently fighting in court over that, and the much broader and more consequential issue of who has ultimate authority over the border.

Yet even in December, when thousands of people a day were crossing at Eagle Pass, the golf course remained open. In a widely shared video posted that month on TikTok, a golfer hit a drive, and a large group of migrants under the bridge erupted in cheers.

The number of migrants crossing into the park dropped sharply in January. Those who do cross into Shelby Park have been arrested by state police, charged with misdemeanor trespassing and taken to a local jail.

From the fairway of the fourth hole, a shallow-water patrol boat could occasionally be heard passing, its propeller sounding like a helicopter. Some of the boats belong to Florida, which is supporting the Texas border security effort.

The hole is tricky because getting to the green requires hitting over an arroyo, a drainage channel, that has been densely lined with concertina wire. As the wind whipped up, a tattered blue parka tumbled across the grass, away from the concertina wire and containers, its sleeves ripped in several places and its white stuffing spilling out on the grass.

Fernando Bonilla, 56, recalled his shot on the hole the previous day. “The only reason I didn’t end up with a bad hook into the Rio Grande was because of the containers,” he said. He treated the unusual obstacle as he does the fall leaves on the course in his home state of Georgia, he said. “The rules allow you to play off of the leaves and not lose a stroke. So, I didn’t discount the stroke from hitting the containers.”

Another obstacle was a group of National Guard troops conferring nearby, outside a large olive green tent.

“Yesterday I was afraid of hitting the Texas National Guard, so I played it toward the bridge,” Mr. Bonilla said. “Then today, I was like, ‘I’m going for it.’ Because it’s actually further than you think.”

He added: “This is combat golf.”

Later in the day, Mr. Abbott held a news conference nearby, along with 13 other Republican governors to denounce President Biden’s immigration policies, not far from the fourth green.

The presence of so much law enforcement infrastructure on the course has at times created tension with the city of Eagle Pass, which oversees its operation. The city has billed the state for more than $10,000 in damage, according to the interim city manager, Ivan Morua, mostly from trucks driving over the grass and damaging water lines.

But the national attention that has come to Eagle Pass because of the clash over border politics has been good for the golf course, said its manager, Carla Rodriguez, 23, who grew up in the city and played on the high school’s golf team.

“We’re seeing a lot of walk-ins,” she said. “Some play. And some just want to see what the border looks like.” She says the club also has many Mexican members who come over from Piedras Negras to play, usually on Thursdays, and then return.

City officials said they were using any extra revenue to help fix up patchy greens and some dusty areas along the fairways.

“The course is probably the best it’s been,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

Even with the new obstacles.