Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state is launching a “tough medicine” messaging campaign warning migrants against the dangers of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The state is paying to erect billboards across Central America and in border cities across northern Mexico to discourage migrants from crossing into Texas. The billboard campaign costs around $100,000, Abbott said.
The billboards, which are in multiple languages, including Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic, tell horror stories to deter migrants from entering, Abbott said on Thursday, Dec. 19, in Eagle Pass in south Texas.
Those stories involve migrants being sexually assaulted while seeking to enter the United States. One of the billboards, the governor said, asks family members this question, “How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?”
“This is tough medicine,” Abbott said. “But we want no more rape trees in Texas. Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas.”
He said he had the ashes of a tree where migrant women were sexually assaulted by human traffickers and left to die.
Abbott was accompanied by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Freeman Martin, Adjutant General of Texas Major General Thomas Suelzer, Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, Association Against Sexual Assault CEO Rose Luna, and ranchers Kimberly and Martin Wall.
The governor did not provide any evidence of these “rape trees” and deaths. The governor also did not mention if Texas authorities are investigating these rape allegations.
The Maverick County sheriff’s office didn’t immediately respond to El Paso Times’ request for comment.
Immigrant rights advocates argue that the very efforts of the state to stop migrants through transnational border security programs do little to deter them from arriving but rather push them into more dangerous situations.
“Actions like Lone Star do nothing to address the crisis of violence and sexual abuse by unscrupulous actors against those who migrate,” Dylan Corbett, the director of the El Paso-based Hope Border Institute, said. “On the contrary, the state’s illegal closure of the border to asylum seekers is directly funneling them into the hands of criminals who prey on them.”
These “rape tree” allegations were refuted by border authorities, according to a 2022 story by Border Report.
“I don’t know where they’re getting that information. What area? It’s not in Maverick (County) that I know of and I haven’t heard it from the other sheriffs close to my area,” Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber told Border Report.
Abbott plans to work “hand-in-hand” with President-elect Donald Trump, saying that Trump with bring an end to alleged “horrors” along the border.
The Governor’s new effort comes as he seeks nearly $3 billion more in Texas’ next legislative session for border security for his Operation Lone Star. The project has cost taxpayers $11 billion since its launch in March 2021.
Operation Lone Star further militarized the southern border with Mexico through the deployment of Texas National Guard soldiers and state troops. The operation also unrolled thousands of miles of razor wire and expanded the border wall across the U.S.-Mexico border.
While the state’s efforts have drawn the public’s attention, they have done little to address the causes of migration.
“Gov. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star is really an exercise in political theatrics,” Corbett said, “It does noting to address migration.”
Jeff Abbott covers the border for The El Paso Times and can be reached at: jdabbott@gannett.com; @palabrasdeabajo on twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky
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Publish date : 2024-12-19 05:09:00
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