Governor Greg Abbott‘s migration policies have been slammed as the “definition of evil” after a Texas state trooper claimed border guards had been ordered to push back migrants, including small children, into the Rio Grande, as well as denying them access to water. The allegations have been dismissed in part by the department, which insists there is no policy against handing water to migrants.
Democratic politicians have also hit out at the deployment of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, designed to impede illegal immigration, which one congress member said “are going to force people to drown.”
Authorities across the U.S. are struggling to cope with a surge in unauthorized immigration, with law enforcement stopping a record 2.76 million migrants after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Immigration is likely to play a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election campaign, with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump vowing to end “automatic citizenship” for the children of undocumented migrants “on day one” if elected.
On Monday, the Houston Chronicle published an email from a Texas state trooper, sent to a superior, who said migrants had been pushed back into the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, causing one 4-year-old girl to pass out from heat exhaustion, and denied water.
The trooper wrote: “Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well…I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”
In response Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said law enforcement hadn’t been instructed to deny water to migrants.
The unverified claims caused fury on social media, with progressive social media activist Jack Cocchiaretta sharing a post on Twitter blaming Abbott, who he described as “the definition of evil,” to his 348,000 followers.
Nessa Diosdado, a Texas-based “Gen-Z activist,” called on the president to intervene. She said: “Migrants are human beings. What Greg Abbott is doing at the border with children and babies is not what this country stands for. He must be stopped. We need President Biden to step in.”
There was anger at Abbott from Democratic lawmakers at the placement of buoys in the Rio Grande, in a bid to deter illegal migration.
Speaking to CNN, Texas Representative Joaquin Castro said: “What he [Abbott] intends to put out are drowning devices. Those things are going to force people to drown. Children, disabled people, mothers, and others.”
