Texas Nationwide Guard Member Fires Throughout Rio Grande, Wounds Mexican Citizen

“Texas Nationwide Guard member fires throughout Rio Grande, wounds Mexican citizen” was first printed by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public coverage, politics, authorities and statewide points.

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A Nationwide Guard member on responsibility on the Texas-Mexico border in El Paso fired throughout the Rio Grande, injuring a 37-year-old Mexican man in Ciudad Juárez on Saturday night time, in response to the Texas Army Division and Mexican information shops.

“On the night time of 26 August, a Nationwide Guard Servicemember assigned to Operation Lone Star discharged a weapon in a border-related incident,” a spokesperson for the army division mentioned in an announcement. “The incident is underneath investigation. Extra data will likely be made obtainable because the investigation progresses.”

Based on El Diario, a Spanish language newspaper in Juárez, Darwin José García of the southern Mexican state of Veracruz was practising a sport on the Mexican aspect of the Rio Grande round 8:50 p.m. Saturday whereas a bunch of migrants had been crossing the river. García mentioned he then heard photographs and realized he had been shot within the leg, the newspaper reported.

In December 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott despatched state troopers and Nationwide Guard members to El Paso as a part of Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar state effort launched in 2021 to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande alongside the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border.

The army division didn’t launch any extra data. The U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Division of Public Security and Gov. Greg Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to emails from The Texas Tribune and the Army Instances in search of touch upon Monday.

The taking pictures occurred close to the Bridge of the Americas, which is near a nationwide park on the Mexican aspect. The person was handled by paramedics on the scene, transported to a Juárez hospital and was later launched, in response to La Verdad, a information outlet within the Mexican border metropolis.

It’s the second time {that a} Texas Nationwide Guard member has shot a civilian whereas deployed for Operation Lone Star, and the third identified time {that a} soldier has fired their weapon whereas on responsibility on the border.

On Jan. 13, Spc. Angel Gallegos shot migrant Ricardo Rodriguez Nieto within the shoulder close to Mission within the Rio Grande Valley. The soldier claimed he by chance fired his service handgun whereas wrestling with Rodriguez Nieto, who denied touching Gallegos and mentioned the shot was fired from the kitchen into the lounge of an deserted house. Different migrants who witnessed the taking pictures echoed Rodriguez Nieto’s model of occasions when interviewed by Texas Rangers.

Based on paperwork supplied by way of an open information request, the Hidalgo County District Lawyer declined to current the case to a grand jury, citing inadequate proof and unclear jurisdiction.

A 12 months earlier in January 2022, a Texas Guard member used his M4 carbine to disable a Chrysler 300 sedan pushed by a suspected smuggler in Laredo. The soldier instructed investigators that he fired his rifle into the automobile’s engine after the motive force, who was arrested after abandoning his automobile, tried to run over one other Texas Guard member.

The Border Community for Human Rights, an El Paso-based immigrant rights group, condemned Saturday’s taking pictures, calling for the U.S. Division of Justice to analyze.

“Right here on the border, we will now not stand up to the violence and cruelty unleashed and demand rapid motion from our federal and state governments. Sufficient is sufficient,” mentioned Fernando Garcia, the group’s government director.

This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune

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