Austin, TX – A report released by the ACLU of Texas shows how Texas state troopers have become “frontline enforcers” of our country’s immigration laws, and have been especially cruel under the Trump Administration. Videos have surfaced showing the Texas Department of Public Safety’s troopers pulling people over, often for minor infractions, and having entire families ripped apart on the spot after calling Border Patrol.
To read the report first published by the Intercept, click here.
Said Astrid Dominguez, immigrants’ rights policy strategist for the ACLU of Texas:
The Department of Public Safety has operated for far too long with little accountability, transparency and oversight. These latest instances of abuse and suffering are merely the next act in the three-ring political circus that the Trump and Abbott administrations have brought to the border. We already have hundreds of Border Patrol agents, drones and extensive surveillance technology along the border. And now we’ve got documentation of harassment and profiling during traffic stops by state officials, added to an already stifling level of militarization.
Martha Sanchez community organizing coordinator for LUPE issued the following statement:
Millions of Americans live in border communities, and we want our rights respected. Instead, we are discriminated against by state troopers acting as immigration agents. We need to bring accountability to the Texas Department of Public Safety and get police out of the business of deportations.
Mario Carrillo, Director for America’s Voice Texas said:
Immigrant communities are under attack in our state. From discriminatory laws like SB4, to attacks on Dreamers and DACA, there is an all-out effort from Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and members of President Trump’s administration to criminalize immigrants, and this cannot stand. We will continue to push our local leaders to pass policies that protect all of our state’s residents and hold accountable those who continue terrorizing immigrant families.
