Migrant traps
Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News
By Stephen Reeves
Imagine that trying to cross rows of razor wire was safer than staying at home.
Imagine that plunging into a raging river with your toddler offered them better odds of survival than going back to your country.
Now imagine if those making such choices were white and spoke English. Could you imagine Governor Abbott continuing policies and tactics that result in more unnecessary deaths?
No one wants drug smugglers and cartel members crossing our border.
Mothers and fathers with little kids in their arms are not cartel members but likely cartel victims.
No one crossing the river in the daytime in plain sight of Border Patrol agents are smugglers.
I’ve been grieved and distressed since Monday night when news broke of an email from a DPS Trooper stationed on the border at Eagle Pass detailing the types of incidents we knew would happen. Of course razor wire and buoys in the river are dangerous to migrants attempting to cross. They’re meant to be.
The email lists his concerns about how the state is conducting Operation Lone Star. He felt compelled to speak out after receiving orders to drive exhausted men, women, and children back into the river with absolutely no regard for their safety. You can find the complete text of what he wrote here. It is not only worth your time, it should be mandatory reading.
Among the many horrifying details, this is perhaps most revolting: “we had an adult male with a significant laceration in his left leg. We asked him what happened and he stated that he had a child who was stuck on a trap in the water. He said that there was a barrel that had casualty wire all over it and his child was stuck on it. He extricated his kid and while doing so the barrel trap lacerated his leg.”
According to the trooper, the state of Texas has placed barrels covered in razor wire in the Rio Grande to act as migrant traps. They have been sadly effective and in this case trapped a small child.
It is hard to fathom the depth of this cruelty.
If these accounts are true, It appears the inhumanity of the state of Texas knows no bounds. Thank God for the courageous trooper who blew the whistle on these brutal practices and for those who refuse to carry out orders that result in most certain death.
Migrants are not just caught on razor wire, they are caught between the cartel violence and abject poverty of their homelands and a broken U.S. immigration system crippled by uncaring and inhumane politicians more intent on winning elections than solving a humanitarian crisis.
There is no way to deter someone running for their life. Militarization of the border does not stop those seeking refuge and a future for their children. The inhumane tactics and torturous barriers deployed by the state of Texas only drive folks to more dangerous methods of crossing while also enriching cartels and coyotes who prey upon migrants.
Governor Abbott surely knows this. He just doesn’t seem to care about the deaths of women and children. Hundreds have drowned in the river and died in the heat of the South Texas brush. If he cared, he would immediately change tactics. Instead, he has doubled down and claimed that the troopers are the ones in danger.
The brave trooper blowing the whistle seems to disagree with the one whose order sent him to the border. His powerful words in the conclusion of his letter echo my own feelings.
“I believe we a have stepped over a line into the inhumane. We need to operate [Operation Lone Star] 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.“
“I also believe that forcing refugees to cross back into Mexico vs getting them to Border Patrol is putting them back in the hands of the Cartels where they are assaulted robbed and raped. This plays into advantage of the Cartels as they can charge them again to cross them over.”
We must find ways to accommodate those seeking asylum and humanitarian aid so that our efforts can focus on actual smugglers. We must reform and expand legal immigration pathways and drastically increase the capacity of our asylum process. This has long been the goal of Fellowship Southwest’s advocacy efforts.
We also call on Governor Abbott to end Operation Lone Star. Instead, focus manpower and resources on stopping smugglers, not further endangering desperate migrants. Texas should be working with local and federal officials to solve the humanitarian crisis at the border, not wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on abhorrent and hateful tactics that continue to fail.
Governor, it may look tough and feed your political ambitions to have National Guard troops, humvees, and razor wire visible behind you for news cameras, but there is nothing tough about victimizing women and children. At the very least, order your migrant traps removed before you catch any more tired, hungry, and traumatized toddlers.