TEXAS, USA — Congressman Joaquin Castro says if allegations of abuse against migrants along the southern Texas border are proven correct, the one man responsible could end the entire operation immediately.
“I hope that Gov. Abbott will stop those inhumane practices, these barbaric practices,” the San Antonio Democrat said on Inside Texas Politics. “And really all of Operation Lone Star has been much more of a political stunt than anything else.”
The state is investigating allegations of abuse against migrants lodged by a state trooper.
In an email to a supervisor, that DPS medic alleged that troopers working along the border were ordered to push some migrants trying to cross the Rio Grande back into the water, even reportedly ordered to deny them water.
Those allegations are coming out of Eagle Pass, Texas, the same area where the Governor recently deployed a long line of buoys to deter crossings, as well as razor wire, as part of Operation Lone Star.
Castro says if the state does nothing, the federal government could, from the Justice Department issuing a cease and desist order, to the President’s bully pulpit.
And the Democrat says it’s a fair question to ask why we haven’t heard more from President Joe Biden on the issue.
“I’m not just going to reflexively defend the President here. The President needs to speak up on this issue. He needs to say something. The Administration needs to take action. The Department of Justice needs to fully investigate this,” he told us.
Castro says he’s reached out to the White House and that he spoke to Secretary of State Antony Blinken the night the allegations became public.
And he says the situation along the border, from allegations of inhumane treatment, to the use of razor wire, to the deployment of a long line of buoys in the Rio Grande, should continue to be more than a headline for the foreseeable future.
“If we’re not hearing about this next week or next month, if there’s no action that is taken, if the President doesn’t say something, then I think it reflects a failure of American society. It reflects a kind of moral failing.”
Watch the full episode of Inside Texas Politics:
