End Abbott’s failed border mission now
When the people charged with protecting us are in crisis, we all suffer.
Recent reports indicate a Texas National Guard in disarray, with members burdened by low wages and poor living conditions.
The most recent incidents involved two soldiers; one reportedly accidentally killed himself in an alcohol-related shooting incident, while another survived a suicide attempt, according to a Jan. 4 report by the Army Times.
Just weeks before, on Dec. 23, the Army Times reported four other suspected suicides in two months among Guard members.
All six soldiers were supporting Operation Lone Star, the controversial mission ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott to stem the flow of immigrants across the U.s.-mexico border.
Discovering an infantry NCO who had cut his wrists Dec. 28 in a hotel room near Mcallen, four soldiers slowed the bleeding long enough for paramedics to arrive and save his life.
The shooting death, under investigation, took the life of a junior enlisted soldier in Mcallen from the same mobilized unit — 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry.
Texas National Guard chaplains ordered a morale survey Jan. 3, two days after the incident.
These incidents are unacceptable, and they must be addressed — immediately — by the governor and the military.
Morale problems abound, many involving pay and benefits. The state has struggled to pay soldiers on time, while slashing the two-year tuition assistance budget in half, from $3 million to $1.4 million, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The Texas Military Department told KHOU 11 News “approximately 150 service members” were “experiencing pay issues,” but while a spokesman told reporters the issues have been corrected, the department did not respond to further requests for comment last week from the Houston Chronicle.
No connection between the deaths and the Operation Lone Star mission has been established, but some soldiers faced disruption in their lives following orders to protect the border, often with only a few days notice, as well as problems with pay, health care and educational benefits.
“Gov. Abbot is the commander-in-chief of the Texas National Guard,” Beto O’rourke, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, said in a statement. “If he chooses to deploy those under his command, it is his duty to pay them, deliver the benefits he promised them, and ensure they receive proper mental health support in order to prevent the kind of tragedy we’ve seen in recent months. And if he can’t justify their deployment, he owes it to them and their families to send them home.”
If pay issues have been “corrected,” as the Texas Military Department said, officials must be transparent about them. We must not minimize what these men and women do. Whether in Afghanistan or Texas, Guard members risk their lives for us.
To send them on a mission motivated by politics is cruel and stupid. Abbott has deployed 10,000 Guard members to set up border fencing and help Department of Public Safety troopers carry out his plan to arrest and jail migrants on state charges, turning the border into the equivalent of a militarized zone.
More than 2,000 immigrants have been apprehended since the mission started, but legal issues arise when they are detained by state troopers instead of Border Patrol agents. Many, as a result, have been allowed to stay and pursue refugee status. This makes the mission a bureaucratic as well as moral failure.
If Abbott wants to solve the morale crisis within the Guard, he can start by shelving this failing mission. Even if no direct link has been established between the mission and the suicides, such a connection is not only plausible, it is reasonable.
The morale survey should deliver some answers. The question is, how many more tragedies will we see before it is complete? There is no reason to wait. The governor must end his mission — now.