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Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference during the early stages of Operation Lone Star.
During a press conference Tuesday afternoon that included 15 Texas Democratic lawmakers, Congressman Al Green said wants impeachment proceedings to begin against the Republican governor if allegations of misconduct by state troopers reported by Hearst Newspapers are true.
The conference was scheduled after Hearst reported on an email from a Department of Public Safety employee stating that troopers had been ordered to push injured migrants — one of which was a pregnant teenager — back into the Rio Grande and deny them access to drinking water.
"It's important for us to speak truth to power on this, and the truth is that the governor is unfit to serve," said Green, whose district includes Southwest Houston. "No person with an ounce of decency would do what this [article] indicates has been done. If this is true, and I still don't really believe that it's true, but if this is true, articles of impeachment ought to be brought against this governor."
Green reiterated the need to impeach Abbott twice during the press conference.
The Justice Department last year launched an investigation into Operation Lone Star, Abbott's $4.4 billion border crackdown, over allegations of civil rights violations. Now, Democratic lawmakers including U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio are calling on the DOJ to issue a cease-and-desist order for Abbott's initiative while their investigation continues.
Castro also expects the International Boundary and Water Commission — the binational entity charged with managing the U.S-Mexico border — to release a statement Abbott's buoys and razor wire Abbott recently ordered set up along the Rio Grande violates International Law.
"We are also asking the Biden administration to take action and not let Greg Abbott off the hook," Castro said. "He is the one who has ordered these very inhumane policies. He is the one who should be responsible for stopping these practices."
While the press conference was taking place, Abbott — along with Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, DPS Director Steve McCraw and Texas Adjutant General Major General Thomas Suelzer — issued a joint statement defending Operation Lone Star.
"No order or directions have been given under Operation Lone Star that would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally," the statement said. "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."
Despite Abbott's reassurances that his crackdown doesn't pose a risk to migrants' lives, Hugo Urbina, an Eagle Pass landowner whose ranch borders the Rio Grande, told the Express-News that he's seen the state's razor wire injure several migrants on his property.
Urbina's allegations back up the claims made in an email by a DPS agent to a superior earlier this month, alleging that agents pushed a pregnant 19-year-old migrant who had a miscarriage and was cut by the razor back into the river. The email also asserted that superiors told officers not to provide the migrants drinking water, even in the scorching heat.
In an emailed statement to the Current, Abbott's office denied that any such order had ever been given.
"The absence of razor wire and other deterrence strategies encourages migrants to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry while making the job of the Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers more dangerous and difficult," the statement said.
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