Texas Guard to send tank-like military vehicles to the border

This text is co-published and co-reported with Navy Instances, an unbiased information group reporting on points vital to the U.S. navy. Join its day by day Early Hen Temporary publication right here.

Three days after Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a legally doubtful invocation of the “invasion clause” of the U.S. and Texas constitutions over the excessive variety of migrant encounters on the Texas-Mexico border, his border mission is about to incorporate armored personnel carriers designed to hold troops into battle alongside tanks, in line with a planning doc obtained by Military Instances and The Texas Tribune.

The order issued Thursday by Texas Navy Division officers to the headquarters overseeing Operation Lone Star reveals that the Nationwide Guard will quickly deploy 10 M113 armored personnel provider automobiles to the border.

In line with the order, round 50 troopers might be educated to function the automobiles, and state officers will establish 10 positions to station them alongside the border.

The Texas Navy Division mentioned in a written assertion Friday that along with the ten armored automobiles, the Texas Nationwide Guard is rising “plane flights and safety efforts” on the border.

“These actions are half of a bigger technique to make use of each out there software to combat again in opposition to the record-breaking stage of unlawful immigration,” the division mentioned. “The Texas Nationwide Guard is taking unprecedented measures to safeguard our border and to repel and turn-back immigrants making an attempt to cross the border illegally.”

Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, sending 1000’s of troopers and Texas Division of Public Security troopers to the border whereas accusing the Biden administration of failing to safe the border. The trouble has included inserting delivery containers and rows of DPS and navy automobiles alongside the Rio Grande to discourage migrants from crossing, plus utilizing state cash and donations to construct border obstacles.

Armored personnel carriers just like the M113 are designed to hold infantry troops throughout trendy battlefields alongside tanks. They are often geared up with a spread of weapons: heavy machine weapons, grenade launchers, antitank missiles and even giant cannons just like these mounted on tanks. It’s not clear what weapons, if any, might be on the Texas Guard’s M113s on the border.

Such automobiles are by definition bulletproof and might face up to small explosions. Within the civilian world, lighter, wheeled armored personnel carriers are typically used to hold police SWAT groups.

Lovingly often called the “battle taxi” by Military troops, the Vietnam-era M113 options tracks as an alternative of wheels, main observers to typically confuse them for tanks. Tracks permit heavy armored automobiles to traverse tough terrain — corresponding to ditches or muddy areas — with a decrease threat of turning into caught.

The U.S. has despatched 200 of the growing old automobiles to Ukraine to help that nation’s combat in opposition to invading Russians.

It’s not clear why the Texas Navy Division plans to deploy the automobiles to the border. Since Operation Lone Star started, the company has not publicly acknowledged any incidents during which the safety offered by the extra nimble Humvee automobiles deployed there was insufficient.

The transfer didn’t shock Fernando García, the chief director and founding father of the Border Community for Human Rights, who mentioned Abbott is “making an attempt to justify the narrative of the invasion” by casting asylum seekers and migrants looking for alternatives as violent criminals.

“For [Abbott] it’s straightforward to say there’s an invasion, and ship troops to the border with a possible consequence of a significant scenario of human rights violations,” García mentioned.

Since Operation Lone Star started, the variety of migrants apprehended alongside the Texas-Mexico border has elevated regardless of the expenditure of $4 billion and the involuntary deployment of as much as 6,500 Texas Navy Division troops.

Considerations with Operation Lone Star’s misdemeanor trespassing arrests of migrants even have sparked a Division of Justice civil rights probe.

Moreover, Texas Guard troops have complained about pay issues, poor residing circumstances and inconsistent steerage from leaders for the reason that operation expanded massively final fall.

The information organizations revealed these points in a collection of tales scrutinizing the mission’s hasty mobilization course of, how company leaders ignored the outcomes of a suggestions survey and its finances overruns.

In current months, the navy division has taken steps to deal with troopers’ issues and slowly decreased the variety of troops on the border. Three of the division’s prime leaders additionally abruptly departed the company in March and April.

Ten troopers linked to the mission have died since September 2021, all through accident or suicide.