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(Trends Wide) — Emails shared with Trends Wide by the Texas Department of Public Safety detail a police medic expressing concern to a supervisor about the “inhumane” treatment [sic]” toward migrants along the border at Eagle Pass, Texas.
The agent writes in the email that “they were given orders to push people back into the water, to go to Mexico” and they were also ordered not to give the migrants water.
The email is a report of weekly events and operational concerns from June 24 to July 1, while the official was working as a police medic. The email was first reported by the Houston Chronicle on Monday.
In a seven-hour period late last month, according to the email, two doctors from the Texas Department of Public Safety said they treated:
- A girl, age 4: passed out in 100 degrees Fahrenheit after Texas National Guard personnel pushed the group she was in back into Mexico.
- A man with a major laceration to his leg: He was injured trying to rescue his son from barbed wire attached to a deterrent buoy in the Rio Grande.
- A teenager, 15 years old: The boy had a broken leg and was injured when he tried to cross a more dangerous part of the river, away from the buoys.
- A woman, 19 years old, caught in the wire who had a miscarriage.
The next day, according to the email, police officers received reports of a mother and two children trying to cross the river in an area with no wires. The woman and a child were picked up after being underwater for about a minute. Both were pronounced dead at the hospital. The body of the other child was later recovered.
On another shift, doctors said they found about 120 people camping out, including nursing babies and other young children, exhausted, hungry and tired after a day when temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius in the shade. Doctors questioned an order to pull them back into the river toward Mexico because they thought it was “not the right thing to do” and could have put them at risk of drowning. They were told to leave the area, the police officer wrote in the email.
Rio Grande de Texas on the border with Mexico.
State Police medics contacted their superiors while on duty and again in writing, requesting changes to the latest Operation Lone Star policies put forth by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
“I think we have crossed a line into inhumane [sic]. We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God,” the policeman said. “We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God. We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such.”
In the email, the police officer also expresses concern about the razor wire.
“The wire fence must provide protection to the state and provide a safe means of travel on the mainland to the appropriate collection points. The wire also needs to be constantly attended to and patrolled to provide safety for these families seeking shelter. The wire on the shore should be lit at night so people can see it and not trip over it like a trap. It is necessary to remove the wire and buoys from the river, since this is nothing more than an inhuman trap [sic] in high water with poor visibility,” the police officer wrote.
In a separate email, also shared by the Department of Public Safety (DPS), South Texas DPS Director Victor Escalón wrote to agency officials saying troopers should open the wire to help when needed.
“As we enforce state law, we may need to open the wire to help people with medical problems, keep the peace, and/or make an arrest for trespassing, property crimes, acts of violence, or other state crimes, Escalón said.
Escalón also noted in the email that Texas State Troopers should “continue to send messages to migrants through staff verbal commands, LRADS (long range acoustic devices) and signaling, about the dangers of crossing the Rio Grande into the United States.” United” and “remind migrants to turn themselves in at ports of entry on the Mexican side.”
“Our DPS medical unit is assigned to this operation to address the medical concerns of all involved. As we enforce state law, we may need to help people with medical issues and provide water, as needed,” Escalón said.
He also added that the Department is in “close communication with Federal Immigration of Mexico, the State Police, the media and NGOs across the river in Mexico to help with messages to stop the flow of migrants.”
This message also included an email from DPS Director Steven McCraw with attached photos of injuries sustained by razor wire along the Rio Grande. There were seven incidents in which migrants required medical attention, according to the email.
“The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between ports of entry and not harm migrants,” McCraw wrote.
In response to the reports, Abbott issued a statement to Trends Wide.
“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry, as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from more than 150 countries to risk their lives to enter the country illegally. . The absence of barbed wire and other deterrent strategies encourages migrants to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry, while making the job of Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS agents difficult. more dangerous and difficult. President Biden has unleashed chaos at the border that is unsustainable and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis,” the governor’s statement said.
In recent years, migrants have resorted to increasingly risky, and often fatal, paths to evade detection and enter the U.S. Immigrant rights advocates point to policies that have made it harder for migrants to seek refuge in USA, Trends Wide previously reported.
Last year was the deadliest yet for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, with at least 748 people dying at the border, Trends Wide reported.
Texas has recently been involved in a lawsuit over the deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from crossing the border.
DPS spokesman Travis Considine could not confirm or comment on any of the reports detailed in the email.
When Considine was asked if the state troopers had been ordered to push the migrants back toward the river or denied them water, he told Trends Wide that the Office of the Inspector General is investigating the incident.
“State agents give migrants water. They treat their wounds. They save them from drowning. They also do everything they can to discourage them from risking their lives in the first place,” Considine said, in a tweet, Monday night.
Trends Wide has also reached out to the Texas National Guard for comment.
