Some members of the Texas national guard who were sent to the US-Mexico border by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) as part of ‘Operation Lone Star,’ slammed the mission, calling it a waste of time and resources.
Last March, Abbott announced the plan to send thousands of Texas Guard troops to the southern border “to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas.”
“The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” Abbott said at the time. “Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.”
Nearly a year later, some members of the guard are speaking out and complaining about long hours with little to do, cramped quarters leading to a COVID-19 outbreak among troops, lack of mission, improper gear and delayed paychecks.
“As military, people know the term hurry up and wait. This is just the biggest hurry up and wait I was a part of, and there’s really no set, ‘hey, we’re doing this, or hey, go out and do this.’ It’s just, we’re sitting around doing nothing,” one soldier told CNN.
The troops were sent to the border to essentially serve as lookouts at observation points and notify the US Border Patrol if they see any migrants.
“There’s guys standing at our points doing nothing, so they don’t really see a mission. They just see this as we’re just used as political pawns for an election year,” the soldier said.
“I’ve seen a lot of soldiers down here break down. I’ve seen just a lot of soldiers, like their attitudes have changed drastically,” the soldier added. “Morale has been definitely low and the mental health has been declining.”
Also concerning is the fact that there are at least four deaths of service members who were assigned to ‘Operation Lone Star’. This week, Texas Army National Guard Spc. Dajuan Lester Townes died in an accidental shooting.
It was the second non-mission related death among troops assigned to ‘Operation Lone Star’. Two soldiers also died by suicide.
“It made me lose faith in a lot of the stuff that I had faith in as far the military goes,” another soldier told CNN.
Command Sgt. Major Jason Featherston, who retired last year and was involved in the initial planning of ‘Operation Lone Star’ admitted that the mission was not planned properly.
“We want to have soldiers provide these specific sets of tasks down there, and then that those tasks be planned out properly,” Featherston said. “And to be honest with you, if this thing was planned properly, we wouldn’t be sending soldiers down there with improper gear.”
The Texas Military Department says it is working to resolve the issues while a spokesperson for Abbott reiterated the mission’s goals to CNN, the same ones that service members call a waste of time.
“The mission for the National Guard and Texas DPS has been clear from the beginning: deter and prevent immigrants from entering Texas illegally, including building barriers to achieve those goals, and to detain and arrest those who are violating Texas law,” Abbott’s spokesperson said.
