HRW urges Texas Legislature to increase oversight of National Guard border operations – JURIST

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Texas Legislature to impose stricter oversight and deny additional funding to the Texas Military Department (TMD), which oversees Texas National Guard (TNG) troops, on Wednesday. This follows reports that TNG troops fired pepper-spray projectiles, known as “pepper balls,” at migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of Operation Lone Star.

Bob Libal, HRW’s Texas adviser, noted multiple incidents in which witnesses reported TNG units firing pepper balls at migrants that “posed no risk to National Guard members or anyone else.” Libal urged the legislature to “respond by increasing oversight of the Texas Military Department and defunding the department until these abuses stop.”

During a June meeting of the Texas Senate Border Security Committee, TMD Deputy General Thomas Suelzer claimed that “people crossing the border are becoming increasingly violent,” suggesting that cartels may have made threats to kill migrants returning from the border. Suelzer outlined the escalation of violence used by TNG forces at the border, stating that “force may be used in self-defense or defense of others,” but that the force used must be the minimum level dictated by and proportionate to the situation. He said that pepper balls are used to saturate an area near barriers approached by migrants with a diffuse cloud of irritants to deter crossings, and claimed that TMD forces are trained not to “shoot directly at the individual,” which he said could cause serious bodily harm.

However, witnesses and migrants interviewed by HRW have disputed these claims, reporting incidents in which migrants were directly shot with pepper balls, including one case in which a man was struck by a projectile. The Washington Office on Latin America has also documented the use of other non-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets and physical violence, including beatings and pushing people into concertina (razor) wire, by Texas law enforcement and TNG forces.

The UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials requires that the use of force by law enforcement officials, including military forces acting in such capacities, be necessary and proportionate. The UN Human Rights Office further states that chemical irritants should only be used when there is an imminent threat of harm.

Texas launched Operation Lone Star in 2021 under Governor Greg Abbott to “detect and disrupt illegal border crossings, arrest human traffickers and cartel gang members, and stop the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl.” He claimed the measure was necessary because of President Biden’s “reckless open border policies,” which he said have created an illegal immigration and drug crisis in Texas that the federal government is ignoring.

Since its launch, Operation Lone Star has come under scrutiny for its extensive military presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and for contributing to a number of deaths and injuries along the border. One reported incident involved TNG allegedly preventing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol from helping a migrant mother and her children who drowned on the U.S. side of the border.

In response to rising illegal border crossings, President Joe Biden signed an executive order in June barring those who cross the border illegally from receiving asylum. The move has prompted a lawsuit from advocacy groups who argue that the order violates both U.S. immigration law and the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits sending asylum seekers back to countries where they would be harmed.