"These new accounts expose a heart-wrenching

lack of regard for the sanctity of human dignity."
Krish O'Mara Vignarajah

A Texas state trooper deployed as part of Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star recently raised concerns about state authority-directed inhumane practices that have led to the harm and mistreatment of immigrants seeking safety at the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to the email sent to supervisors, Texas troopers were ordered to thrust defenseless children and nursing infants back into the Rio Grande, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found caught in razor wire strung by the state of Texas, and a four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through razor wire and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers.

The trooper also expressed his opposition to the state’s alleged policy of denying access to water amid scorching heat. Additionally, Texas authorities have recently deployed a wall of deterrence buoys that have pushed asylum seekers towards more treacherous areas of the river, increasing the risk of drownings.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) unequivocally condemns these actions as cruel, inhumane, and unnecessary.