Texas National Guard uses loudspeakers to ask immigrants not to cross the border

The Texas National Guard implements a new measure that consists of talking to undocumented immigrants who are on the banks of the Rio Grande (Bravo in Mexico) and who are trying to cross it to enter the United States, to dissuade them from leaving Mexican territory.

From the US side of the tributary, at gate 40 between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Hundreds of migrants ask every day to be allowed to pass, but the Texan agents insist on sending them to the bridges, where they are not allowed to enter unless they have an appointment through the ‘CBP One’ app.

“We want them to go to the bridge and ask for political asylum, they cannot enter through here. It is illegal to enter through here, if they enter through here they will be booked, we don’t want to do that. They listen? They understand? “We are not here to give political asylum,” one of the agents said to the immigrantsaccording to EFE.

“We are here so they don’t come in. Our job is to keep them out. Do it as correctly as possible, go to the bridge please,” the officer told them from US territory with a loudspeaker.

More hostility from Texas

The actions of the Texan authorities occur despite the fact that the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stated in May that the governor of Texas has recently “moderated” because he previously had a “very aggressive” policy against immigrants and Mexicans.

Also, they occur in the midst of increasing operations to stop immigrants in the United States and Mexico, where in the first quarter of 2024 alone, irregular migration intercepted by the Mexican government grew by nearly 200% annually to almost 360,000 people.

Honduran Julia Ramírez questioned the “inhuman and violent” conditions of the Texan guard. “They treat some of them as if we were not people, they throw burstable pellets (rubber bullets) at the children and they fill their faces,” said the migrant.

Ecuadorian María Kaicedo, six months pregnant, managed to enter one night, but the Texas National Guard returned her “with violence” to the Mexican side of the border.

“If I had known that I was going to be received this way I would never have done it. I am pregnant. I ran, spit up blood, and they still pulled me out. So how come they say they are giving asylum to those who need it,” she lamented.

He added that it is risky to go to the bridges to ask for asylum as the Texas National Guard suggests because the cartels and the National Immigration Institute (INM) of Mexico can capture them.

For this reason, he explained, they prefer to endure the attacks of the Texas National Guard and insist on crossing the Rio Grande, so that they can finally be handed over to the United States immigration authorities and request asylum.

“They shot that pepper spray at us. Girls who had cut themselves passing the barbed wire did not even help them, it is an inhumane thing. We know that we are doing wrong, invading lands, but we want an opportunity like they gave others,” she said.

By Martin Coronado

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