Abbott’s Border Balls and Razor Wire

While the mindless and easily led are watching some Q-Anon “save the children” movie designed to rile up christian fundamentalists and Trumpers, the reality is that Greg Abbott and his artificial border balls, I mean, buoys, are endangering children and humans on the border in real life. The Chron ran an article regarding the problems that Greg Abbott is creating. (Full read here)

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.”

Are we really surprised that an inept failure of a governor would resort to this kind of inhumanity? What is scary is that there are people who are just fine with it, including so-called leaders on the border.

DPS and their inept Director who failed in the Uvalde response are trying to change policies as they go.

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.”

What a load of crap. Their intent all along has been to injure and maim. It’s great material for his bigoted base.

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.

Add to this the intent to vilify the Biden administration and it’s all about politics for Abbott. Unfortunately, he is endangering humans, instead of just offering his usual whining.

If some of these “save the children” idiots actually want to save children, then, here’s a cause. But we know hate and bigotry is their intent, and Greg Abbott knows how to use them for his own benefit.