According to accounts, a migrant was shot on Sunday as the two struggled in a confrontation at the Texas portion of the US-Mexico border.
According to a document obtained from the Texas Military Department and cited by the Texas Tribune, this shooting marks the first instance of a soldier shooting and injuring a migrant since Operation Lone Star started. According to reports, the injured immigrant’s condition was not life-threatening.
According to reports, the soldier is an infantryman who has been stationed at the border as part of a billion dollar initiative to stop illegal immigration into Texas.
The immigrant was shot in the left shoulder. For medical attention, he was transferred to a hospital.
Texas National Guard soldier patrolling border shoots migrant after struggle: report https://t.co/jAi5uiAChY
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A gang of migrants were tracked to an abandoned home by Border Patrol officers, a trained canine, and two Texas National Guardsmen at roughly 4:20 a.m. on Sunday.
Three of the four migrants who were inside the building when the military entered surrendered, according to the report. The fourth apparently fought when a soldier tried to apprehend him after fleeing via a window. The soldier was punched and elbowed during a tussle on the floor.
The soldier shot the immigrant during the scuffle with his M17 handgun. It was a one-shot situation and there were no other recorded injuries.
“Governor Greg Abbott’s reckless and political decision to place our National Guard service members in situations where they have no specialized training and for which they rarely – if ever – have jurisdiction makes an already challenging situation potentially dangerous. Maintaining this deployment will only lead to similar incidents or even worse — ones which could prove to be fatal. I expect a full, thorough and transparent investigation,” Democratic US Representative Veronica Escobar from El Paso slammed the border effort in a statement.
