Abbott’s Inhumanity Continues

I’m pretty sure that it’s been proven many, many times that Greg Abbott is a failure of a human. Some of us have been saying it for far too long hoping to convince Texans to reject him. Unfortunately, there have been too many–including Dems–who have given him a pass, while shoving their heads up him to appease him.

That said, here’s the latest goings regarding the Texas Border.

A report was posted by Bob Libal, a human rights activist and expert, this week (8/21) from the perspective of Human Rights Watch.

Today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott will be in Eagle Pass with other far-right governors showing off Operation Lone Star, his abusive border militarization program.

I was in Eagle Pass last week for Human Rights Watch. This is what I saw.

Asylum-seekers including at least 4 babies or small children were trapped on the Texas side of the Rio Grande under concertina wire. They asked for water. One woman was throwing up, and appeared to be quite ill. National guard members and DPS agents looked on for more than an hour, refusing to give the families water or assist them. Other migrants helped the dehydrated woman by scooping water to her mouth from the muddy Rio Grande.

I saw a toddler crossing in a deeper part of the river, screaming with fear. For a moment, I thought we were going to witness a kid Felix’s age drown. DPS/Florida game warden boats — which had been making waves in the river to deter the immigrant families — were stationed upriver, and in no position to help in case of emergency. The National Guard will not and cannot help because they are removed by razor wire. Her family managed to turn back to an island in the middle of the river.

National Guard members told the migrant families to walk 3 miles down river — in heat already approaching 100 degrees — to turn themselves in. They were directing them to private property where people are often arrested and charged by the state of Texas with criminal trespassing, which can land them in prison for a year.

As has been documented by Human Rights Watch and elsewhere, Operation Lone Star is a deadly, abusive program that has resulted in deaths and injuries to migrants. Thousands of people have been criminally prosecuted under Operation Lone Star for criminal trespassing and have languished in a separate, unequal criminal justice system for up to a year, for a crime that I wouldn’t spend more than a night in jail for. More than 100 migrants have drowned in Maverick County — which includes Eagle Pass — in the last 18 months. Operation Lone Star and the deadly “buoy barriers” Gov. Abbott is showing off this week are nothing to be proud of.

DOJ Argues for Removal of Abbott Floating Buoys

In court the DOJ stated that Texas never sought authorization to place the floating barrier on the border. Abbott responded with, “We told you” and that they did not need permission.

Texas also argued the state has the right to defend itself against an “invasion” of drug cartels. But when the state’s lawyers tried to establish the nature of the border security challenges at the border that made the barrier necessary, U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra swatted away that line of defense.

“This is a United States District Court. It is not Congress. It is not the president,” Ezra said. “I’m not here to engage in nor do I have any inclination to engage in any type of political comment in this decision.”

Lawyers have until Friday to submit closing arguments and the Judge will issue a decision. There’s also the question of Texas violating Mexico’s sovereignty because the border buoys were on the Mexico side of the river.

Abbott Sends Migrants to Hurricane Zone

Greg Abbott sent 37 volunteer migrants to California in the middle of a hurricane. Same ol’ story; different day.

Abbott’s Corrupt Court System Keeps Migrants Caged

Operation Lone Star isn’t just about Abbott creating (floating) balls for himself on the people’s dime, it’s also about creating a court system which imprisons migrants on false trespassing charges, while opening up a spigot of money for counties (Kinney and Val Verde) providing cops and appointed judges and the state providing empty jail space. A lawsuit was recently filed by four migrants who had done their time on these bogus charges but were kept imprisoned.

“In its design and execution, ‘catch and jail’ metes out incarceration; due process is at most an afterthought,” the lawsuit claims. “Foreseeably, if not intentionally, the scheme has violated the human and civil rights of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.”

These migrants were kept caged for no other reason, other than for human rights violating purposes. Let’s hope for some redress, but more than anything, Abbott’s corruption needs to be stopped.