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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 1 year

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande.

According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father.

The email, which the trooper sent to a superior, suggests that Texas has set “traps” of razor wire-wrapped barrels in parts of the river with high water and low visibility. And it says the wire has increased the risk of drownings by forcing migrants into deeper stretches of the river.

The trooper called for a series of rigorous policy changes to improve safety for migrants, including removing the barrels and revoking the directive on withholding water.

“Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote, later adding: “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”

Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine did not comment on all the contents of the trooper’s email, but said there is no policy against giving water to migrants.

Considine also provided an email from DPS Director Steven McCraw on Saturday calling for an audit to determine if more can be done to minimize the risk to migrants. McCraw wrote troopers should warn migrants not to cross the wire, redirect them to ports of entry and to closely watch for anyone who needs medical attention.

In another email, McCraw acknowledged that there has been an increase in injuries from the wire, including seven incidents reported by Border Patrol where migrants needed “elevated medical attention” from July 4 to July 13. Those were in addition to the incidents detailed by the trooper.

“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.”

The incidents detailed in the email come as Abbott has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to physically bar migrants from entering the country through his Operation Lone Star initiative, escalating tensions between state and federal officials and drawing increased scrutiny from humanitarian groups who say the state is endangering asylum seekers. The most aggressive initiatives have been targeted at Eagle Pass.

The state has also now deployed a wall of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, which triggered complaints over the weekend from Mexico.

Federal Border Patrol officials have issued internal warnings that the razor wire is preventing their agents from reaching at-risk migrants and increasing the risk of drownings in the Rio Grande, Hearst Newspapers reported last week.

The DPS trooper expressed similar concerns, writing that the placement of the wire along the river “forces people to cross in other areas that are deeper and not as safe for people carrying kids and bags.”

The trooper’s email sheds new light on a series of previously reported drownings in the river during a one-week stretch earlier this month, including a mother and at least one of her two children, who federal Border Patrol agents spotted struggling to cross the Rio Grande on July 1.

According to the email, a DPS boat found the mother and one of the children, who went under the water for a minute.

They were pulled from the river and given medical care before being transferred to EMS, but were later declared deceased at the hospital. The second child was never found, the email said.

The Governor has said he is taking necessary steps to secure the border and accused federal officials of refusing to do so.

“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally," said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. "President Biden has unleashed a chaos on the border that’s unsustainable, and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis.”

The DPS trooper’s email details four incidents in just one day in which migrants were caught in the wire or injured trying to get around it.

On June 30, troopers found a group of people along the wire, including a 4-year-old girl who tried to cross the wire and was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them,” the email says. The DPS trooper wrote that the temperature was “well over 100 degrees” and the girl passed out from exhaustion.

“We provided treatment to the unresponsive patient and transferred care to EMS,” the trooper wrote. A spokesperson for the Texas National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.

In another instance, troopers found a 19-year-old woman “in obvious pain” stuck in the wire. She was cut free and given a medical assessment, which determined she was pregnant and having a miscarriage. She was then transferred to EMS. The trooper also treated a man with a “significant laceration” in his left leg, who said he had cut it while trying to free his child who was “stuck on a trap in the water,” describing a barrel with razor wire “all over it.” And the trooper treated a 15-year-old boy who broke his right leg walking in the river because the razor wire was “laid out in a manner that it forced him into the river where it is unsafe to travel.”

In another instance, on June 25, troopers came across a group of 120 people camped out along a fence set up along the river. The group included several small children and babies who were nursing, the trooper wrote. The entire group was exhausted, hungry and tired, the trooper wrote. The shift officer in command ordered the troopers to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico,” the email says.

The trooper wrote that the troopers decided it was not the right thing to do “with the very real potential of exhausted people drowning.” They called command again and expressed their concerns and were given the order to “tell them to go to Mexico and get into our vehicle and leave,” the trooper wrote. After they left, other troopers worked with Border Patrol to provide care to the migrants, the email said.

The trooper did not respond to a request for comment Monday. His email was shared by a confidential source with knowledge of border operations. It was unclear whether the trooper received a response from the sergeant he’d messaged.

Considine acknowledged that DPS was aware of the email and provided the additional agency emails in response. Those emails detail seven other incidents reported by federal border agents in which migrants were injured on the wires, including a child who was taken to the hospital on Thursday with cuts on his left arm, a mother and child who were taken to the hospital on Wednesday with “minor lacerations” on their “lower extremities,” and another migrant taken to San Antonio on July 4 to receive treatment for “several lacerations” that required staples.

Victor Escalon, a DPS director who oversees South Texas, wrote in an email Friday to other agency officials that troopers “may need to open the wire to aid individuals in medical distress, maintain the peace, and/or to make an arrest for criminal trespass, criminal mischief, acts of violence, or other State crimes.”

“Our DPS medical unit is assigned to this operation to address medical concerns for everyone involved,” Escalon wrote. “As we enforce State law, we may need to aid those in medical distress and provide water as necessary.”

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invincible-selfxmade-punk · 1 year

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For all of you following my teaching drama with the covid generation this year: We found out a little while back that in Texas Greg Abbott is changing our Teaching Standards for social studies next year.

From what I understand, firstly, we will now no longer be teaching geography.

This is a huge problem because this year most of the kids could not tell the difference between cities, states, and countries. They seemed to think that Los Angeles was the state. They thought that Texas was bigger than Russia. They had no idea that Alaska and Hawaii were part of the United States among other atrocities.

We also will not be covering Native Americans or the trail of tears. I'm not sure what else is being erased or left out and I am honestly too scared to look into it just because of how depressing it is going to be.

I am really really afraid that in the coming years I will be forced to stop teaching the holocaust.

I am sitting here trying to figure out what tag this so it will get the most views but there are few words that can express my absolute disgust at this situation, or how appalling it is to have such few options in fighting it.

#gov. greg abbott #pinche abbott #Texas #teaching #erasure #state standards #please share

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midnightfunk · 2 years

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#gov. greg abbott #joe biggs #proud boys #texas

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kiramoore626 · 1 year

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Conservative states are blocking trans medical care. Families are fleeing.

Conservative states are blocking trans medical care. Families are fleeing. From Texas to Florida, families with kids who are medically transitioning say state policies limiting gender-affirming care are forcing them to flee.

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#Conservatives #Gov. Greg Abbott #LGBTQ #Mental Health #Republicans #Texas #Transgender #Transgender Youth

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cannabisbusinessexecutive · 2 years

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Majority of Texans continue to support legalizing pot in Texas, new poll shows

Since 2012, 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam have legalized marijuana for recreational use — something 51% of Texans have said they either support or strongly support, according to a new Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll. And the numbers are even higher for medical use: 67% of those surveyed said they would either support or strongly support the legalization of marijuana…

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#Gov. Greg Abbott #Legal Marijuana #marijuana poll #recreational marijuana #texas legislature #texas marijuana

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reportwire · 2 years

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Washington, D.C., mayor declares public emergency over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's busing of migrants | Texas News | San Antonio

Washington, D.C., mayor declares public emergency over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing of migrants | Texas News | San Antonio

2022-09-09 11:33:00 click to enlarge Texas Tribune / Shuran Huang Two buses transporting migrants from Texas as part of Gov. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star arrive at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on April 21 Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public health emergency Thursday over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s continued busing of migrants to the nation’s capital. As part of the…

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aci25 · 2 years

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What makes this photograph remarkable is you see a group of people on stage perfectly willing to let children die for money being confronted by someone who is not. That is absolutely what is happening in this picture.

America is lost. And as long as people keep on believing that their freedom depends on the tea leaf interpretation of late 18th century document written by pre industrial rich landed white men for the benefit of pre industrial rich landed white men, then it’s doomed

#texas government #powerful #powerful message #stop violence #gun control now #texas #gun violence #shooting at texas elementary school #texas elementary school #beto o'rourke #Beto O'Rourke confronts Texas Gov. Greg Abbott #Texas Gov. Greg Abbott #child death #gun control #republicans #usa politics #politics #political

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taviokapudding · 1 year

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For legal reasons I want to clarify that on Nov 9 I slept most of the day because I got my bivalent Covid booster and flu shot on Nov 8- & I even wrote it down in my blood pressure log because I completely forgor & was high key snork mimimimi-ing

I didn't impersonate Nintendo of America but CHRIST I accidentally might have spoken it into existence because I know I sometimes just ssy shit and it happens word for word

If you're still using Twitter do no scan QR codes, coupons, game reward codes, etc. until you check the validty of a verified account because I got a bad feeling shit is going to take a turn if Elon Musk's team doesn't back peddle

#mun post #twitter #last time I said a 99.9% thing was in feb 2020 when I said millions would die if the US gov let state gov decide on pandemic response & mad #-sk mandates and pointed out the CDC was about 3 weeks behind on the already large death toll on march 2022 #i wonder if my recent dream of greg abbott suddenly dropping dead from a covid complication is another one of those premonitions #elon musk #twitter verified price #twitter checkmark

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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 2 years

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#us politics #2022 #twitter #tweet #rep. alexandria ocasio cortez #sen. ted cruz #immigrants #immigration #human trafficking #gov. greg abbott #gov. ron desantis #martha's vineyard #gov. charlie baker #maryland #texas #Florida #venezuelan refugees

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 months

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A federal judge in Austin on Thursday halted a new state law that would allow Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally.

The law, Senate Bill 4, was scheduled to take effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction that will keep it from being enforced while a court battle continues playing out. Texas is being sued by the federal government and several immigration advocacy organizations. Texas appealed the ruling to the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ezra said in his order Thursday that the federal government “will suffer grave irreparable harm” if the law took effect because it could inspire other states to pass their own immigration laws, creating an inconsistent patchwork of rules about immigration, which has historically been upheld as being solely within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

“SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Ezra wrote.

Ezra also wrote that if the state arrested and deported migrants who may be eligible for political asylum, that would violate the Constitution and also be "in violation of U.S. treaty obligations."

"Finally, the Court does not doubt the risk that cartels and drug trafficking pose to many people in Texas," Ezra wrote in his ruling. "But as explained, Texas can and does already criminalize those activities. Nothing in this Order stops those enforcement efforts. No matter how emphatic Texas’s criticism of the Federal Governments handling of immigration on the border may be to some, disagreement with the federal government’s immigration policy does not justify a violation of the Supremacy Clause."

Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 4 in December, marking Texas’ latest attempt to try to deter people from crossing the Rio Grande after several years of historic numbers of migrants arriving at the Texas-Mexico border.

In a statement, Abbott said the state "will not back down in our fight" and that he expects this case would eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. On social media, he wrote that he is "not worried" because "this was fully expected."

"Texas has solid legal grounds to defend against an invasion," he added.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office is defending SB 4 in court, said in a statement that he "will do everything possible to defend Texas’s right to defend herself."

The law seeks to make illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor, carrying a punishment of up to six months in jail. Repeat offenders could face a second-degree felony with a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.

The law also seeks to require state judges to order migrants returned to Mexico if they are convicted; local law enforcement would be responsible for transporting migrants to the border. A judge could drop the charges if a migrant agrees to return to Mexico voluntarily.

In December, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project sued Texas on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrant rights organizations — El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways — over the new state law. The following month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its lawsuit against Texas. The lawsuits have since been combined.

During a court hearing on Feb. 15 in Austin, the Department of Justice argued that SB 4 is unconstitutional because courts have ruled that immigration solely falls under the federal government’s authority.

The lawyer representing Texas, Ryan Walters, argued that the high number of migrants arriving at the border — some of them smuggled by drug cartels — constitutes an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from engaging in war on their own “unless actually invaded.”

Ezra said that he “is not unsympathetic to the concerns raised by Abbott,” but appeared unconvinced by Walters’ argument.

"I haven't seen, and the state of Texas can't point me to any type of military invasion in Texas," Ezra said. "I don't see evidence that Texas is at war."

Immigrant rights advocates around the state celebrated the ruling because they worried that SB 4 would lead to border residents' rights being violated.

"We celebrate today’s win, blocking this extreme law from going into effect before it has the opportunity to harm Texas communities," said Aron Thorn, senior attorney for the Beyond Border Program at Texas Civil Rights Project. "This is a major step in showing the State of Texas and Governor Abbott that they do not have the power to enforce unconstitutional, state-run immigration policies."

Edna Yang, co-executive director at American Gateways, said that SB 4 does not fix “our broken immigration system” and it will divide communities.

“This decision is a victory for all our communities as it stops a harmful, unconstitutional, and discriminatory state policy from taking effect and impacting the lives of millions of Texans," she said. "Local officials should not be federal immigration agents, and our state should not be creating its own laws that deny people their right to seek protection here in the U.S."

David Donatti, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said the ruling is an "important win for Texas values, human rights, and the U.S. Constitution."

"Our current immigration system needs repair because it forces millions of Americans into the shadows and shuts the door on people in need of safety. S.B. 4 would only make things worse," he said. "Cruelty to migrants is not a policy solution.”

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invincible-selfxmade-punk · 2 years

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There are ads to re-elect that asshole Greg Abbott all over my dash.

The man who bussed undocumented workers Washington DC to leave them stranded, the man who told the victims of the Uvalde shooting #2 it could be worse,

#2 he wasn't going to do anything about gun violence in Texas because it wasn't a problem with gun violence, there was just a problem with mentally ill people...

This f---ing guy is all over my dash via Tumblr ads.

If he is showing up on your dash too please let it be a reminder to vote these type of people out of office!!!

#tumblr ads #republikkklans #gov. greg abbott #texas

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midnightfunk · 2 years

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In a recent court brief, more than a dozen current and former employees of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services warned that continuing to abide by Gov. Greg Abbott's directive to treat gender-affirming medical care as potential child abuse would push the agency past "the brink of collapse."

#gov. greg abbott #texas #lgbtq issues #prejudice #discrimination

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kiramoore626 · 2 years

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What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott's calls to investigate gender-affirming care

What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott’s calls to investigate gender-affirming care

What life is like for trans youth in Texas after Abbott’s calls to investigate gender-affirming care It’s been eight months since Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of trans youth for providing gender-affirming care. Since then, some families have left the state. Those that stayed have weathered anxiety and the dizzying…

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#Gov. Greg Abbott #LGBTQ #Texas #Texas Department of Family and Protective Services #Transgender #Transgender Youth

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cannabisbusinessexecutive · 2 years

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Most Texans Want To Legalize Marijuana. Why Doesn't Greg Abbott Listen to Them?

Most Texans Want To Legalize Marijuana. Why Doesn’t Greg Abbott Listen to Them?

The governor, like Republican politicians in other red states where support for legalization is surprisingly strong, does not seem to think it is risky to defy public opinion. A new poll finds that 55 percent of Texas voters favor legalizing marijuana for recreational use. That’s down a bit from the 60-percent support measured last spring, but it is still a pretty striking result in a state where…

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#Gov. Greg Abbott #Legalizing Marijuana #Texas

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reportwire · 2 years

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Mysterious group targeting Gov. Greg Abbott reserves $6 million in TV ads ahead of November election | Texas News | San Antonio

2022-09-09 13:01:00 click to enlarge Texas Tribune / Jordan Vonderhaar Gov. Greg Abbott at a campaign event in Georgetown in January. A shadowy new group has purchased at least $6 million in TV advertisements ahead of the November election and is airing an ad that targets Gov. Greg Abbott as he runs for reelection. The minute-long ad from Coulda Been Worse LLC, which started airing Friday,…

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#2022 ELECTION #Beto O&039;Rourke #Coulda Been Worse LLC #dark money #Dave Carney #Gov. Greg Abbott #governor&039;s race #gubernatorial race #power grid #Texas grid #texas politics #U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar

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