Texas state police officers separated migrant families along the border with Mexico by detaining fathers on trespassing charges and turning over mothers and children to federal officials, the state Department of Public Safety said Thursday.
Texas state police officers separated migrant families along the border with Mexico by detaining fathers on trespassing charges and turning over mothers and children to federal officials, the state Department of Public Safety said Thursday.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Travis Considine, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said in a statement that children have never been separated from their mothers, but “there have been instances in which DPS has arrested male migrants on state charges who were with their family when the alleged crime occurred.”
Greg Abbott’s office referred questions to Department of Public Safety officials, who did not respond to additional requests for comment, including how many families have been separated, when they began and where the detained men are being taken.
Texas’ latest move to secure the border without coordinating with the federal government drew widespread criticism from immigration advocates and some comparisons to Trump-era family separations, though they are markedly different.
Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers attempted to pass immigration laws, including creation of a state border police force and increases in penalties for trespassing.
Those attempts failed but the Republican-controlled Legislature allocated more than $5 billion in border security funding, and gave federal immigration officers power to make arrests under Texas laws.
More recently, Abbott installed a 1,000-foot (305-meter) line of wrecking ball-sized buoys in the Rio Grand e along the Eagle Pass region, which prompted the Justice Department to sue Texas over removing the floating barrier.
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