Texas Denies Migrant Abuse as DOJ Opens Probe

The Justice Department opened an investigation into Texas Department of Public Safety agents and alleged abuse of migrant, but Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is rebutting the allegations as scurrilous.

"No orders or directions have been given under Operation Lone Star that would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally," Abbott wrote in a statement. "The Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Military Department continue taking steps to monitor migrants in distress, provide appropriate medical attention when needed, and encourage them to use one of the 29 international bridges along the Texas-Mexico Border where they can safely and legally cross."

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the allegation too "barbaric" to be true, according to The Dallas Morning News.

And DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez denied the allegation, too.

"No trooper has been told to physically push migrants back into the river," Olivarez told the San Antonio Express News.

But, still, a troopers' email making the allegation of being told to push back migrants into the Rio Grande River and deny them water and treatment in the summer heat has triggered a DOJ investigation.

"The department is aware of the troubling reports, and we are working with DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and other relevant agencies to assess the situation," DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.

Abbott said he began Operation Lone Star to do the work President Joe Biden's federal government was refusing to do to secure the Texas-Mexico border.

"With migrants from over 150 countries encouraged by open border policies to risk their lives and make this dangerous trek to enter our country illegally, Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry," Abbott's statement added. "The absence of these tools and strategies — including concertina wire that snags clothing — encourages migrants to make potentially life-threatening and illegal crossings.

"Through Operation Lone Star, Texas continues stepping up to respond to the unprecedented humanitarian crisis at our southern border."

Abbott has long contended Texas law enforcement would not be enforcing the law at the border if the Biden administration was not derelict in its constitutionally assigned duty to protect and defend.

"The Texas National Guard is playing an unprecedented role to secure the border because of the unprecedented refusal of the federal government to fulfill its obligations under federal law," Abbott said, starting the operations in Biden's first year in office.

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