During an online conference call hosted by Frontera Texas Organizing Project, groups including Border Network for Human Rights said the governor's $11 million deployment of National Guard troops to deter border crossings has led to widespread civil-rights violations, according to Border Report.
Aly Boyd of Border Servant Corps, which operates migrant shelters in El Paso and New Mexico, said the organization has created a "documentation tool" to record complaints as it encounters asylum seekers who share abuse claims, the news site reports.
“We are really the first stop for guests after their release from custody, so we are able to see directly the impact of Operation Lone Star on asylum-seekers,” Boyd said on the call.
Boyd said the shelters' medical staff frequently attend to migrants who have been slashed by razor wire deployed along the border under Operation Lone Star, according to Border Report.
“They are reporting they’re being pushed into the razor wire," Boyd added. "They’re also being shot with pepper balls, which embed in the skin and irritate the skin, and they’re having tear gas fired on them.”
Boyd's claims echo those made in a report released last month by Hope Border Institute, which accuses Abbott and other Texas Republican leaders of making it more dangerous for asylum seekers to reach their destinations. The document also calls out the Texas Guard for using pepper spray and rubber bullets on migrant families.
"Between May and June 2024, the Hope Border Institute, during medical interventions made in the course of Clínica HOPE, its binational humanitarian initiative, treated dozens of individuals who suffered from physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Texas agents," researchers wrote.
Danny Woodward, a legal fellow with the Beyond Borders Program, told Border Report that documenting alleged cases of abuse will empower advocacy groups to file complaints with government agencies. Ultimately, inquiries by those agencies may result in Texas officials being held responsible.
“The first thing we need to do is document the abuse. We need to get clear testimony on what’s happening and find a way to tell these stories,” Woodward said to the news outlet. “In January, we’ll see a new session of the Texas Legislature, [and it’s] a new opportunity to advocate with state officials, both by talking to legislators and at hearings [on border security]."
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