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The US Justice Department is trying into the legality of Texas’ border fence that makes use of razor wire and buoys to cease migrants from crossing the Rio Grande after the Mexican president has condemned the fence as “inhumane” and “barbaric.”
The fence is a part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a marketing campaign to safe the border amid a surge of asylum seekers from Central America and different international locations.
Abbott has blamed President Joe Biden for making a “crisis” on the border by reversing a few of former President Donald Trump’s hardline insurance policies.
But the wired fence has raised critical human rights issues, as migrants have been injured, dehydrated, and denied water by Texas authorities, in line with an e mail obtained by the Houston Chronicle from an nameless Department of Public Safety trooper.
The e mail described a number of incidents the place troopers had been ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico” and to not give them any water, even within the scorching warmth.
The trooper mentioned he believed they’d crossed a line into the “inhumane.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador echoed that sentiment, saying he was shocked by the experiences and that he thought Abbott was utilizing the fence for political achieve.
“I don’t think the people of Texas view the policies in a positive light,” he mentioned.
DOJ spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa mentioned the division was “aware of the troubling reports” and was working with Homeland Security to “assess the situation.”
The Houston Chronicle additionally reported {that a} 19-year-old pregnant lady, who was reportedly having a miscarriage, was discovered trapped within the razor wire final month and doubled over in ache.
A four-year-old lady additionally fainted from warmth exhaustion and needed to be rescued from the water by a Texas National Guard soldier.
A person with a minimize on his leg suffered extra accidents after attempting to avoid wasting his little one from razor wire after they grabbed onto a buoy within the river.
A 15-year-old with a damaged leg needed to be carried via the water by his father, who was desperately trying to keep away from the wire.
In one other e mail from DPS Director Steven McCraw, he defended the fence, saying it was meant to discourage smugglers and to not hurt migrants. He mentioned smugglers didn’t care concerning the migrants’ well-being, however Texas did.
“The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants. 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,” he wrote.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre known as the fence “shameful” and “atrocious” on Wednesday, however didn’t say if the Biden Administration deliberate on eradicating it, as Mexico has requested. She additionally mentioned she didn’t know what conversations had been occurring between Texas and Mexico officers.
The Mexican authorities has protested the razor wire fence, saying it violates two agreements signed with the US in 1944 and 1970, which regulate the usage of the border rivers. Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, Alicia Barcena, despatched a observe to US officers demanding a allow for the fence.
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The border is going through an enormous backlog of migrants, with greater than 100,000 ready to enter the US, in comparison with 60,000 final month. In Tijuana, close to San Diego, California, there are 17,000 asylum-seekers alone, in line with metropolis immigration officers who shared the information with The Post.
The US authorities has elevated the penalties for unlawful crossings, however additionally it is permitting as much as 43,500 migrants to enter legally each month via its CBP One app, which lets them apply for appointments.
There are only one,450 slots obtainable per day.
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