Video appears to show Texas Guard troops on border ignoring woman’s cries for help

A video obtained and shared by Texas Public Radio appears to show Texas National Guardsmen along the U.S.-Mexico border ignoring cries of help from a woman crossing the Rio Grande with a young child in her arms.

Eyewitnesses told TPR the woman was in danger of drowning and that she and the child even “went under for a while.” This occurred while at least four Texas National Guard personnel watched, according to the eyewitnesses.

“I can’t walk anymore. I’m begging you, please help me,” the woman is heard calling out in Spanish. The child can also be heard screaming.

Priscilla Lugo, a justice advocacy coordinator for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, recorded the the incident. Lugo captured the video while kayaking between Shelby Park and the Kickapoo Reservation on the afternoon of Tuesday, Dec. 12, she said in a social media post.

“They watched her as she and the child cried, screamed and begged for help,” Lugo wrote on X. “She kept telling them she couldn’t walk anymore. They did nothing. All they did was watch her from 3-4 feet away on their boats.”

In a separate video Lugo posted on X, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol airboat is seen speeding past the mother and child. Lugo estimates the child is 3 to 4 years old.

“They did not stop to help [the woman],” Lugo tweeted. “They simply drove past her, near enough that the waves from their boat nearly overtook her as she tried to get back to the Mexican side.”

Eyewitnesses told TPR the woman and child managed to return to the Rio Grande’s Mexican side without incident. Even so, the clip led the League of United Latin American Citizens to demand the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation.

“To see the inhumanity of guardsmen ignoring a woman and her baby in risk of drowning within reach but them, being unwilling to extend even a hand to help is beyond belief,” LULAC National Immigration Chair Lydia Guzman said in a statement. “This video exposes the heartless and inhumane practices of National Guard troops under Operation Lone Star.”

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This article appears in Dec 13-26, 2023.