Texas Moves Detained Migrants to Border, Hands Them Over to Patrol Agents

Officers from the state Department of Public Safety were seen taking undocumented migrants captured in Texas to a border checkpoint in Eagle Pass, where they were met by federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, according to The Texas newspaper. Tribune.

This measure is part of the controversial

operation launched by the governor, Republican Greg Abbott, who signed an executive order in April for his state agents and the National Guard to arrest migrants and return them to the border.

Migrants detained in Eagle Pass, Texas in May. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP

Reporters from The Texas Tribune confirmed the transfers in vehicles from the Department of Criminal Justice to the border.

In one case, migrants sat in front of a large fan for about three hours, between trucks that federal agents were inspecting, until Border Patrol officers arrived and took them away in a white van.

The process was repeated hours later with another group of immigrants.

[Lawyer analyzes the executive order in Texas against migrants that allows them to be sent back to the border]

There are few official details about how the operation works, but Texas Military Department officials denied in July at a state congressional hearing that the National Guard played any role in moving migrants to the border.

Groups defending the rights of migrants denounced that Abbott's order usurps powers of the federal government, which according to the Supreme Court holds migratory jurisdiction.

In addition, they indicate that Texas is violating the civil rights of migrants by arbitrarily detaining them to send them to the border.

Abbott has not made it clear what charges they are being arrested on.

However, he recently signed an order so that state agencies could criminally prosecute them for trespassing on private property while crossing illegally from Mexico.

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Abbott, who is seeking re-election as governor in November, has undertaken a series of measures against migrants in recent months, ranging from declaring an emergency at the border, or committing funds for the construction and repair of border fences like the ones he did former President Donald Trump, even jailing migrants or sending them by bus to Washington DC

It has also launched a legal battle against the government of Joe Biden, which has been forced to maintain Title 42 (which allows the express return of migrants at the border due to COVID-19) and to freeze its new deportation priorities, which it exempted all undocumented immigrants who are not a security risk or who have just arrived.

[Biden Administration Divided Over 'Stay in Mexico' Program]

Experts consulted by The Texas Tribune had divergent opinions on the movement of migrants to the border: some emphasize that local agencies have a long history of collaborating with federal authorities in the application of immigration laws and that the new ordinance does not change that. in-depth relationship, but only goes one step further by taking migrants to Border Patrol stations.

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Those who criticize the measure instead point out that the transfer of immigrants to the border does represent a drastic change as Texas assumes more powers that correspond to federal authorities.

“Just because they're not taking them directly across the border doesn't mean they're not enforcing immigration law,” said University of Texas professor Denise Gilman.