I Am A Refugee by Trey Knowles
I Am A Refugee
by Music Artist Trey Knowles
Truth & Knowledge
I Am A Refugee but look at the way you treatment. Is it love? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Feel free to share this video with your friends and family.
7/18/23 Report
Efforts by Texas state officials to deter illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have placed migrants, including children, at risk of drowning or being cut by razor wire, a state trooper said in an internal message that raised concerns about practices he called inhumane.
The trooper also claimed that Texas officials have received directions to withhold water from migrants and to push them back into the Rio Grande.
The internal complaint, now under investigation by state officials, raises further questions about how Texas officials are treating migrants caught up in a sprawling border effort, known as Operation Lone Star. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said the operation is necessary to counter what he has deemed to be lax Biden administration migration policies.
At the direction of Abbott, Texas state officials and National Guardsmen have been setting up razor wire and more recently, river buoys, to repel migrant crossings along the Rio Grande.
The broader state operation has also included efforts to arrest migrant adults on state trespassing charges and to transport migrants by bus to Democratic-led cities, including Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Nicholas Wingate, a medic and trooper for the Texas Department of Public Safety, wrote an email to his superiors earlier this month detailing his concerns about a series of events he witnessed near Eagle Pass, Texas, that he said placed migrants, including children, in danger. The message was first reported by the Dallas Morning News.
In one instance, Wingate said, he and other troopers encountered a group of about 120 "hungry" and "exhausted" migrants, including children and babies. He said an officer ordered him and other troopers to push the migrants, who were already on U.S. soil, back into the Rio Grande so they would return to Mexico.
"We decided that this was not the correct thing to do[, w]ith the very real potential of exhausted people drowning," Wingate wrote. "We made contact with command again and expressed our concerns and we were given the order to tell them to go to Mexico and get into our vehicle and leave."
Wingate said federal Border Patrol agents processed the migrants after he left.
In another event, Wingate wrote, a 4-year-old migrant girl was "pressed back" by soldiers from the Texas National Guard as she tried to cross a section of sharp razor wire. The child fainted, Wingate said, noting she was exhausted amid 100 degree temperatures. Wingate said his team treated the girl and transferred her to an emergency medical services unit.
Wingate also recounted treating a migrant father who reported that his left leg had been lacerated when he rescued his son, who had gotten stuck in the river on a barrel fitted with wire. In another instance, a 15-year-old migrant broke his right leg after he and his father were forced to cross in an area of the river that was "unsafe to travel" because of the razor wire officials had set up.
Later that day, Wingate added, he and his team rescued a 19-year-old pregnant migrant who had gotten stuck in the wire. He said the migrant was in "obvious pain" and having a miscarriage.
Razor wire placed by Texas officials, the trooper also reported, was forcing migrants to cross the Rio Grande in parts that are unsafe, especially for families traveling with children. He referenced reports of a mother and her two sons drowning earlier this month.
In the message, Wingate underscored that he supports Operation Lone Star and efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and keep "bad people" out.
But, he said, "I believe we … have stepped over a line into the in humane. We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God. We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such."
Wingate said Texas officials should be constantly patrolling areas outfitted with razor wire to ensure they can identify migrants in distress. The areas should also be lighted, he said, "so people can see the wire and not stumble into it as a trap." The river barriers, Wingate added, should be discarded altogether.
"The wire and barrels in the river needs to be taken out as this is nothing but [an] in humane trap in high water and low visibility," he wrote. "Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well."
