*In an effort to expose the inhumane directives given by superiors, a trooper for the Texas Department of Public Safety has become a whistleblower.
According to the Houston Chronicle, a trooper working in Eagle Pass says he and his colleagues were told to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.” The Chronicle also notes that “small children and nursing babies” were denied access to drinking water.
“Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote in his report, adding, “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”
As part of the state’s efforts to prevent people from crossing the Rio Grande, razor wire is strung for miles near Eagle Pass.
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told the Houston Chronicle that troopers are taught to “warn migrants not to cross the wire, redirect them to ports of entry and to closely watch for anyone who needs medical attention.”
“The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants,” McCraw wrote. “The smugglers care not if the migrants are injured, but we do, and we must take all necessary measures to mitigate the risk to them including injuries from trying to cross over the concertina wire, drownings and dehydration.”
DPS Communications Chief Travis Considine responded to the allegations on Twitter, saying, “Troopers give migrants water. They treat their wounds. They save them from drowning. They also do everything possible to deter them from risking their lives in the first place.”
As Complex reports, a spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott said “every tool and strategy” is being used to prevent illegal border crossings.
“No orders or directions have been given under Operation Lone Star that would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally,” Abbott’s office said in a statement Tuesday.
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