DOJ looking into Texas' treatment of migrants

AP Photo/Fernando Llano

It was a predictable outcome to a whistleblower’s email that has not been proven to be true. At least, not so far. An internal email was allegedly leaked by a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper to a superior. In the email, troopers were allegedly told to push children back into the Rio Grande River, even babies, to stop them from crossing in to Texas.

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I was skeptical from the jump when I read the “exclusive” reporting by the Houston Chronicle. Something doesn’t land right with the story. Why was a trooper leaking an internal email to a superior? Wouldn’t his or her superiors have sent the email? If this is supposed to be department-approved policy to deter illegal immigration, wouldn’t a real whistleblower just go to a reporter to get the story out? I still don’t believe the story.

There are way too many videos available on social media that show Border Patrol agents and DPS troopers along the southern border helping migrants out of the Rio Grande River and on to the bank on the Texas side. They rescue people who cannot swim and they also recover bodies of those who did not make the trip across the river alive. The Rio Grande may look relatively calm but the current can be dangerous. I’m just not buying that the people who are saving migrants are now being told to leave them on their own after they cannot negotiate the razor wire or barrier buoys set up to help secure the Texas border.

All along I have been thinking that this is the work of someone who wants to shut down Governor Abbott and his actions to secure the state. It is the obligation of the federal government to protect the homeland and secure its borders but Joe Biden doesn’t do that. Neither does DHS Secretary Mayorkas. This humanitarian and national security crisis along the Texas-Mexico border is intentional. Biden wants open borders. Governor Abbott began Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to address the chaos along the border and to support the border communities being overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants each and every week.

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The Texas Tribune reports that the Texas Office of the Inspector General is investigating the trooper’s claims about the DPS enforcement orders. Among the heinous claims are that DPS told troopers to push small children and women nursing babies back into the river. Also, there is a claim that a 4-year-old girl passed out on the riverbank from the heat. It’s hot in Texas, that goes without saying in July, for heaven’s sake. Migrants crossing the border often suffer from dehydration and end up hospitalized or dead. I’m surprised the whistleblower only referenced one young child suffering from the effects of the heat.

Texas Democrats asked the White House to get involved in an investigation into the alleged inhumane treatment of the migrants.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat, called for a Department of Justice investigation Tuesday and wrote, “Razor wire-wrapped barrels in the river, pushing children back into the river, and denying water during extreme heat would be acts of deliberate, horrific torture. It would be beyond politics and cross a line into human rights violations.”

Beto O’Rourke tweeted that there is “one person who has the power to stop Abbott … Mr. President, we need you to act.”

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro called it an “absolutely monstrous, inhumane policy.”

As I wrote in an earlier post about this story, O’Rourke was quick to tweet his hot take but when he ran for governor in 2021, he admitted that Biden ignores the Texas border. Now he’s asking for Biden to get involved. DPS spokesman Travis Considine says the claims are not true.

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“Troopers give migrants water. They treat their wounds. They save them from drowning. They also do everything possible to deter them from risking their lives in the first place,” his tweet says.

He also shared emails from DPS director Steven McCraw in which McCraw called for an audit to find ways to reduce risks to immigrants.

Another official pushed back on the claims of inhumane treatment.

On Wednesday, a top DPS official refuted that they are doing anything to harm people trying to cross the river.

“No trooper has been told to physically push migrants back into the river,” DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said.

He said when the agency is trying to push migrants back from crossing the river, they mean by demonstrating a show of force to get migrants to turn back to Mexico or go to official ports of entry.

DOJ is working with DHS. Two federal agencies that have shown little interest in the southern border will now investigate the situation. Of course. It’s the blind leading the blind.

“The department is aware of the troubling reports, and we are working with (the Department of Homeland Security) and other relevant agencies to assess the situation,” Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said.

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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to the story. Note that she just assumed it is true. Guilty until proven innocent with the Biden administration. Remember whipgate with the Border Patrol agents on horseback along the Rio Grand River trying to stop Haitian migrants from coming across the river? The Biden administration had those agents convicted before an investigation even began. It was all a lie.

“It is abhorrent. It is despicable. It is dangerous,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding that if the accounts are accurate, the state’s actions violate “bedrock values.”

Thanks for sticking up for the people trying to do the job that Biden and Mayorkas refuse to do. This administration is the worst ever.

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