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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. 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]. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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