The Justice Department sent a letter Thursday to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, warning him that it will take legal action over the placement of a buoy barrier on the Rio Grande to deter migrants seeking to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN and the Houston Chronicle.
The Justice Department accuses the state of Texas in its letter of "violating federal law, raising humanitarian concerns, causing serious risks to public safety and the environment, and perhaps interfering with the federal government's ability to fulfill its [immigration] powers," according to those sources.
He also warned him that he will seek a court order to force him to "remove obstacles and other structures on the Rio Grande," referring to barbed fences and barbed wire fences located on the banks to hinder the passage of migrants, and which have been criticized by human rights activists for their potential to cause injury and even death to individuals who try to cross while fleeing violence. or poverty in their countries.
[This is the barrier with buoys that Texas installs on the Rio Grande]
Migrants try to cross into the United States through the water barrier placed by Texas at the southern border, July 11, 2023.Eric Gay/AP
An official with the Texas Department of Public Safety reported in an email sent to his commanders on July 3 that state agents and national guardsmen participating in the operation to stop migrants from passing through have received "inhumane" orders to carry out that task, such as pushing children and babies into the river and not offering water to exhausted crossers. as confirmed by Noticias Telemundo, which had access to those emails. The Texas Department of Public Safety's Office of Inspector General said it is investigating the allegation, but added that "there is no order to act that way."
The agent lays out a series of incidents near Eagle Pass, where a few weeks ago the governor ordered several miles of barbed wire and a buoy barrier installed. In his email he cited the case of a pregnant woman who suffered a miscarriage when she was trapped in the wire; a 4-year-old girl who fainted exhausted after trying to cross the river while being forced back by national guardsmen; and a teenager who broke his leg while trying to dodge the wire.
The officer's complaint was corroborated in part by two pregnant women from Central America who say they asked agents for water after crossing the border after crossing the border and were denied, CNN reports Friday.
Maria and Carmen, who arrived from El Salvador and Honduras and declined to provide their full names for fear of reprisals, said members of the Texas National Guard denied them water on the riverbank. "They told us it was a crime to cross into the U.S. and we had to go back to Mexico," Carmen said, "that they couldn't give us water because it wasn't their responsibility."
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The women said officers showed them their handcuffs and threatened to arrest them if they did not return. "I felt like I was suffocating," said Carmen, who remembers jumping into the river to cool off as the 2 p.m. sun burned her.
At many points along the border, temperatures have surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks.
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The Texas Department of Public Safety has denied there is an order not to give water to migrants or to push them back into the river. "No orders or instructions have been given under Operation Lone Star that endanger the lives of those attempting to illegally cross the border," Abbott's office said in a July 18 statement.
The Republican governor has deployed thousands of agents over the past year along the border as part of the so-called Operation Lone Star to intercept migrants trying to cross into the United States.
In early July, Texas began installing buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande to hinder the passage of migrants. The Government of Mexico has already filed a lawsuit with the commission that regulates the use of the waters of the tributary for an alleged violation of the International Water Treaty signed by the United States.