The Trump-era tactic has been ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott
For Immediate Release: August 2, 2023
EAGLE PASS, TEXAS – Today, a report by the Houston Chronicle revealed that Operation Lone Star is separating immigrant women and children from their families, a cruel callback to harsh Trump-era tactics.
“Abbott’s political stunt continues to inflict unimaginable cruelty on immigrants. Separating children from their fathers indefinitely is immoral and inhumane. What is happening at the border is torture,” said State Senator Roland Gutierrez.
“Central Americans families have traveled thousands of miles of violence, brutality, and death, seeking a better life for their children, only to be torn apart when they arrive. That’s not how we do things here in Texas. We will not let the actions of a few cruel men define us as a state.”
Children have no way of knowing when their fathers will return, families only hear from them infrequently on a two-minute call from jail. Abbott Department of Public Safety is now targeting women for arrests, ordering troopers to push children into the river, and laying deadly traps at the Rio Grande.
More from the Houston Chronicle:
- “Officers there have been arresting both male and female migrants on private land and in a public park, forcing small children and families downriver and withholding water from some even in extreme temperatures.”
- “It is ‘nothing short of state-sponsored family separation,’ said Kristin Etter, an attorney and special project director at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Etter said she knows of at least 26 families that have been split up since July 10.”
- “Castillo-Medina has felt distressed on her own with the girls and said she had a panic attack last week and fell while showering, ending up in the hospital with minor injuries. While she was there, a doctor asked her older daughter if she was okay and the doctor sent her to a psychologist because of how unwell she was. Castillo-Medina said she lays in bed all day and doesn’t sleep or eat.”
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