Texas Guard’s guidance deterring soldiers from saving drowning migrants draws scrutiny – By James Barragán (The Texas Tribune) and Davis Winkie (Army Times) / May 3, 2022
This article is co-published and co-reported with the The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit newsroom that informs Texans about state policy and politics. Sign up for The Brief, its daily newsletter.
The recent death of a National Guard soldier who drowned trying to save migrants in the Rio Grande has led to increased scrutiny of the Texas Military Department’s policy discouraging service members assigned to Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission, from engaging in water rescues.
Hours after The Texas Tribune and Military Times reported that troops along the river — including Spc. Bishop Evans, who died last month trying to rescue a migrant — lacked flotation devices and rescue training, the agency’s leader Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer told lawmakers that troops are advised not to jump in the water to avoid risks.
On Monday, a Fox News reporter captured graphic video of a migrant drowning in the river in Eagle Pass as he attempted to cross into the United States. The reporter said Mexican authorities and National Guard service members witnessed the drowning but did not jump into the water even as other migrants yelled frantically for help.
The Fox News reporter said service members told him they were ordered not to do water rescues after Evans’ body was found April 25. He died while trying to save migrants in the same stretch of river.
