The Forum Daily | Tuesday July 18, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

Some tough news today. 

Emails shared by the Texas Department of Public Safety outline a
trooper's concerns over the "inhumane" treatment of migrants along the
border in Eagle Pass, reports Benjamin Wermund of the Houston Chronicle
<[link removed]>.  

One email states that officers have been ordered to push people back
into the river and have been told not to give water to asylum-seekers
even in extreme heat as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's
Operation Lone Star.  

On June 25, the trooper reported that his team found 120 migrants
camping out, including nursing babies and other young children, and said
they were ordered to "push the people back into the water to go to
Mexico" and leave. Other examples in the piece are even more
heartbreaking. 

"I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane," the trooper
wrote. 

The trooper describes migrants getting injured by razor wire placed
along the Rio Grande, and Department of Public Safety Director Steven
McCraw shared photos of other injuries the wire caused.  

"The smugglers care not if the migrants are injured, but we do, and we
must take all necessary measures to mitigate the risk to them including
injuries from trying to cross over the concertina wire, drownings and
dehydration," McCraw said. 

Gov. Abbott clearly could do more to reduce the danger. We'll be
praying that his heart softens. 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan Gordon, the
Forum's strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team
also includes Karime Puga, Clara Villatoro, Christian Blair and Ashling
Lee. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send
it to me at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. 

DIPLOMATIC COMPLAINT - Meanwhile, Abbott's buoys to prevent migrants
from crossing the Rio Grande have raised the ire of Mexican authorities,
who say they're a violation of water treaties between the U.S. and
Mexico, reports Noah Alcala Bach of the Texas Tribune
<[link removed]>. A
diplomatic letter expressing concerns was sent to the U.S. government on
June 26. Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will
send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the
barrier extends into Mexico's side, as The Associated Press
<[link removed]>
first reported. 

FLORIDA LAWSUIT - Several advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit
against the DeSantis administration in Florida, challenging the state's
new anti-immigration law, reports Andrew Atterbury of Politico
<[link removed]>.
The plaintiffs argue that the law goes beyond federal immigration
policies. "[Florida's law] impedes the federal immigration scheme by
preventing immigrants from entering Florida," the lawsuit states. "And
it puts state officials in the unlawful position of making complex
determinations about people's immigration status and history." 

**MISTREATMENT** - Conditions in a privately run ICE detention center
in Louisiana are getting worse despite promises of improvement, reports
Daniela Silva for NBC News
<[link removed]>.
Allegations include "undrinkable water, the constant threat of solitary
confinement and limited access to doctors, even in critical situations,"
Silva reports. At another privately run detention facility in
Louisiana, an immigrant died last month after having filed at least 29
grievances alleging that he was refused medical care and was subject to
mistreatment and negligence by guards, reports Bobbi-Jeanne Misick of
nonprofit Verite News
<[link removed]>. 

SMUGGLING - Mexican authorities say that they intercepted more than
500 migrants over two days as they crack down on the unsafe
transportation of migrants toward the U.S., Brendan O'Boyle reports
for Reuters
<[link removed]>.
Authorities found 206 migrants in an abandoned tractor-trailer on
Saturday and 303 on Friday morning. The groups included women and
children, with some migrants displaying signs of dehydration.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

P.S. (I need some uplift.) Read about valedictorian Lourdjinia Louis,
the first person in her family to graduate high school - five and a
half years after she arrived from Haiti speaking no English. Jeremy C.
Fox has the story in the Boston Globe
<[link removed]>. 

 

 

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