The rightwing governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is conducting a border policy that is “criminal” and “inhumane” by deploying razor wire and a huge floating buoy in the Rio Grande, a top Texas Democrat has told the Guardian.
Abbott has earned widespread condemnation from civil rights groups and immigration activists for his actions on the border and been accused of pushing a policy that is racist and inflammatory. The US Department of Justice has sued over the issue – though Abbott is currently defying the federal government and not changing tack.
Allegations have also surfaced of border officers being instructed to withhold water in extreme heat, and push children “back into the water to go to Mexico” from a leaked email sent from a state trooper in the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas.
The US Senate candidate Roland Gutierrez, who is seeking the chance to run against the hardline Republican senator Ted Cruz in the state, told the Guardian that Abbott’s policy was a cynical stunt aimed at worsening the crisis, not trying to solve a real issue.
“We’ve seen stunt after stunt after stunt. That email shed light on what these guys are truly doing. I thought the buoy was horrible,” Gutierrez said, referencing the inflatable barrier erected in the Rio Grande river to deter migrants at Abbott’s directive. “But now to find out that there’s razor wire inside the river is just wholly horrific and incomprehensible to me – that someone would think that was a good idea. It doesn’t deter anybody. It’s just criminal. It’s just inhumane.”
Gutierrez was speaking while on his way to the small town of Marathon in west Texas to kickstart his campaign against Cruz.
The “crisis” on the border involving drugs and illegal mass migration, is fabricated, Gutierrez said. He accused Abbott of being “hell bent on posing a false narrative as to what’s happening on the border”.
Shortly after the email was made public, Gutierrez demanded an investigation to be conducted by the US Department of Justice.
In the letter to the justice department, Gutierrez wrote: “There are few greater sins in this world than watching children scream in agony from ‘traps’ that were set for them by law enforcement officials. I believe that these new orders and policy changes violate federal law and our international agreements with Mexico.”
Gutierrez announced his 2024 run on 10 July, taking on incumbent and controversial republican superstar Cruz. The election is over a year away, but political warfare has already begun.
Gutierrez called Cruz “a cancer” on their community, along with Donald Trump and others who often using migrants as political ammunition.
“Ted Cruz doesn’t know the first thing about what’s happening in rural Texas. He just doesn’t. He’d rather spend time dividing us. He doesn’t know how people are suffering across the state, Republicans and Democrats alike.”
Gutierrez is a Texas state senator but also an immigration lawyer, which he calls his actual “day job”. He says the system certainly needs reform.
“We have entire alphabet soup of immigration visas that need to be revamped and retooled. More specifically, our H-2A and H-2B visa programs need to be retooled by Congress. People like Ted Cruz and others need to come up with the fortitude to do what’s right in this space.”
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The effects of the Title 42 “remain in Mexico” immigration policy enacted during the Covid-19 pandemic under Donald Trump and ended under Joe Biden, will probably be a fiercely debated issue in the race.
The policy allowed US officials to turn away migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border in the name of protecting public health, or in this case, preventing the spread of Covid-19. Rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Physicians for Human Rights rang the alarm on the policy that sent vulnerable groups of people back to countries that were unfamiliar to them or that put them at great risk of danger.
Republicans, overwhelmingly in favor of the policy, sued Biden when he tried to end it. But when Biden declared that Covid-19 was no longer emergency, the policy was no longer in effect.
Gutierrez, who opposed Title 42, said he believes illegal immigration is a crime, but it should not be a death sentence. Title eight, the policy that preceded Title 42, was far more humane and effective in enforcing legal immigration, he argues.
“Donald Trump is the one that created the chaos with Title 42, the so called ‘stay in Mexico’ policy. Well, no one stayed in Mexico. They crossed the river every day. And and under Title 42, migrants could go back and forth with impunity, not be tagged, not be processed, and not held for a second for an illegal re-entry, as they would be under Title eight. That’s why you had immigrants that are holding back and are staying back right now – because they’re trying to figure out what those implications are. And they are much worse under Title eight.”
Gutierrez will have to go up against fellow Democrat Colin Allred, and every other candidate from his party that enters the race in the primary election before he can come head to head with Cruz.
But Gutierrez says Cruz is his only competition.
“I aim to have a real, very serious discussion about what’s ailing Texas and it sure isn’t some migrants and it sure isn’t fentanyl. That’s all the kind of bullshit that people are just tired about.”
