A Brief History of ICE and Operation Lonestar

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is
It Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.
Sometimes it's horrible and tso tibi topics like this is
some corruption and genocide, but more than that, it's also
about resistance, power and community. And today Carmen is mostly
just infuriating, just like it has been speaking of the

(00:35):
has been. You did your five part series on the
history of Border Patrol, and I or we both, I guess,
wanted to focus on some newer events that are very
much related to that history of Bord Patrol that you
just covered so diligently, because all violent immigration enforcement is
tied together. So on today's episode, this is a brief

(00:59):
history of I and also Operation Loan Star in Texas.
So if you look at the current ICE page, like
the official government website page, it says that the roots
of ICE can be dated back to seventeen eighty nine. What, yeah,
that's what it says. I mean, I guess if you

(01:19):
tie it to border patrol at this point, just say
it's border patrol also, like I don't know, well, that's
what I'm saying, Like there's is a really a difference
between these yeah, you said the same thing. But I
mean again, that's a bit of a stretch because ICE
is very new as an agency. It's a baby, which
you did say in the last episode. It was ICE.

(01:41):
The agency we know today, or Immigration, Customs and Enforcement,
was created after nine to eleven. In March of two
thousand and three, the Homeland Security Act of two thousand
and two transferred the function of i INS and US
Customs Service to three new organizations, the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Services ICE and US Customs and Border Protection.

(02:05):
And ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department
of Homeland Security. ICE and Border Patrol are separate agencies,
both doing similar jobs, both basically la mega in general,
like we have been saying, yeah, but to be extremely accurate,
there are some differences. Border Patrol is supposed to work

(02:27):
at the border, but may assist within one hundred miles
of a border, and that's a lot, right, It could
be anywhere, it could be anywhere. And ICE, on the
other hand, they're the ones leading the aggressive raids. Border
Patrol allegedly that are not doing these aggressive raids, that
is ICE. And as of July and twenty twenty five,
ICE agents have a daily arrest quota of three thousand,

(02:53):
not border patrol, so like technically it's supposed to be
border patrol at the border only and also one hundred
miles outside of the border and then within operations that
have to do with immigration within the United States is ICE,
and like all these raids and stuff, and so two
years after they were created, ICE began Operation Community Shield.

(03:16):
Have you heard of this? I don't think I have. Actually,
this is an initiative to target violent trans national street
gangs through ICE's broad law enforcement powers. And these are
things like the authority to remove criminal immigrants, which at
this point began to include undocumented immigrants and legal permanent

(03:39):
residents because even when they began this operation, there were
instances of them detaining legal permanent residence which they weren't
supposed to be detaining of course, of course. Yeah, and
under this operation, so twenty nine to twenty sixteen, during
the the Obama Biden administration, two point four million undocumented

(04:04):
immigrants were deported. And so this is why people started
calling Obama what the deporter in chief? That is correct,
also because he campaigned on immigrant rights and supposedly creating
legal pathways for migration and then once he was in
he was president, he did not do that. Instead, he

(04:26):
appealed to the right, as most Democrats do because most
of them are centrists, not in any way left leaning
at all. If anyone wants to learn more actually about
I was gonna wait till the ends to say this,
but the book Everyone Who Has Gone Is Here talks
about the Central American immigration crisis basically, but it goes

(04:46):
so in depth and covers so many topics within immigration
relating to Central America. And something they talk about in
that book is Obama and one of his campaign people
that ended up becoming someone in his cabinet head of
some kind of like immigration department. I don't know if

(05:07):
the permanence right were, but like under Obama, and she
faced a lot of criticism because she was an immigrant
rights activist, and then she basically became the mouthpiece for
Obama anytime there was some kind of like you know,
anti immigrant policy, like she had to come out and
be like, hey, like this is the policy, and people
are like, what the hell's wrong with you? You're between

(05:27):
your community and she's like, I'm and she was trying
to be like I'm working within That never works working
with this sick tried to fight for immigrants. But yeah,
I talked about Obama's like what he said when when
he was running and campaigning and he was actually more
pro immigrant as a was he a senator? I forgot
what exactly if you were the senator or what then

(05:49):
when he became president because it was like a big
thing in his I don't know, like administration, like basically
questioning whether they should actually be promegrant because they didn't
want to piss off their publicans. Basically right right and
again appealing to the right. It's like they use and
abuse the voting block that cares about immigration. Right, they

(06:14):
lie to them, They lie and say where are for this?
And then they turn around do the opposite. And it's
like people wanted to blame the people for the Palestinian cause,
they wanted to blame them for the loss of Kamala Harris.
But it's these fallose promises and say it's the appealing

(06:35):
to the right that yes, yes, gets them because it
doesn't win any left lean people, and it doesn't certainly
doesn't win anyone on the right. Appealing to the right,
you know what I mean, It doesn't. Yeah, So it's
just it's a losing battle. It is they keep doing so,
they keep doing it. They they have never stumped. Yeah,
so yeah, people started calling him the deporter in chief.

(06:59):
And those two point four million deported during the Obama
Biden administration, forty percent were found to have no criminal
charges at all. Of course, because I don't know if
you remember, but this was his thing. He was key.
They kept saying, oh, criminals only, criminals only. Yeah, much

(07:19):
like today, Yes, and again of those two point four
million no criminal charges whatsoever. Started keep saying like the
same thing. But it just goes to show like this
is happening now too, like yeah, it's it's excessive, it's
worse now, but this has been going on. And also

(07:42):
the book Everyone Who Has Gone Is Here makes it
a point to be like everything that Trump did, Obama
set the path for. Like I have that literally written
in my notes that when asked you, it's so annoying
when in the comment of anything, they're like Obama like
trying to defend Trump, and I'm like, okay, nobody agrees
with Obama, Like we're not saying like yeah and having

(08:03):
rifle critique. People were calling him deporter in chief back
then people were calling him out back then. But people
have like a rosy eyed I forgot rose colored glasses,
visuals y, Yeah, that's not it of what. Yeah, the
President Obama presidency was like rose colored glasses. Yeah yeah,
and that's bombing civilians right in the Middle East aside.

(08:27):
Mm hmm. So outside of that forty percent, the majority
of those two point four million that were deported under Obama,
the majority had very very minor charges. I'm talking like
marijuana possession and traffic violations. Yeah. These are not hard
in criminals, right, these are just people. They're all just people,
of course. And there was another source that I found

(08:49):
that actually said that it wasn't forty percent that had
no criminal directors. It was fifty six percent. And that
came from a report from the Department of Homeland Security.
Oh wow, that fifty six percent of those two perform
million had no criminal record. Wow. And I just I
want to emphasize that number because yes, while we and

(09:10):
you just already said it, but it's in my notes.
We are seeing horrible images right now of ice grabbing
people off the stueets, but this behavior is not new.
In fact, Obama ice strain. Obama began doing these nights.
You talked about them, the nighttime raids. Yeah, they went before,
they began before Obama. But like nighttime raids and workplace

(09:33):
raids were huge during this time. They ramped them up.
But well, I'm gonna get into it. That's why I'm
getting ahead of myself. Right. So, during Trump one point zero,
when Trump was beginning to talk about ramping up deportations,
the New York Times publishing article where they said, quote,

(09:53):
gone are the Obama era rules that required them to
focus only on serious criminals, which they actually never did, Okay,
And another opinion piece where they wrote, quote ice and
the border patrol under mister Obama were ordered to focus
on arresting serious criminals and national security risks end quote again,

(10:16):
fifty six percent of those two point four million had
no criminal records. Right, So people were saying this and
Trump one point zero, people are repeating this and Trump
two point zero. But the reality is that migrants in
the US have always been criminalized. In the whole five

(10:36):
part series, you basically discuss how it became criminalized, how
the word immigrant became synonymous with criminal and it's not
a crime again, which we said again and again during
our series. But when you criminalize an entire group, it
becomes okay to do this to them until it's started

(10:57):
tating people in the face. Yeah. In a November twenty
fourteen speech, Obama stated, quote, We're going to keep focusing
enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons not families, Criminals,
not children, gang members, not a mom who's working hard

(11:18):
to provide for her kids. Will prioritize just like law
enforcement does every day. End quote. And yes, that sounds sophisticated,
in fancy and elegance. It's a great slogan. Oh yeah,
it's a fancy, fun slogan. Felons not families. And they
kept repeating that, But that's not what happened. Right in

(11:41):
twenty sixteen alone, his last year in office, four hundred
and fifty thousand were deported, and of that four hundred
and fifty thousand, less than eight percent were found to
be serious criminals and or gang members. Wow. So if
gang members were the target, not moms working hard to

(12:02):
provide for their family, gang members were not who was
being deported. If that was the target, they missed it.
They missed it big. But it is because it didn't
matter exactly. Yeah. Plus like immigrants have been seen as scapegoats, trash,
disposable server class, you know. So yeah, since migration, mass

(12:26):
migration began right right. The term or the little slogan catchphrase,
if you will quote felons not families, It was repeated
throughout twenty fourteen as if to emphasize that the people
being targeted for deportations where again felons not families. Then

(12:47):
I repeat, that's not what happened. And the policies that
we are seeing today are a continuation and acceleration of
Obama's deportation policies. Yeah, if the type of deportations that
Obama okayed in the first place and gave, if he

(13:07):
had not given ICE more funding during his years, it
would have been more difficult for them to be doing
what they're doing today because they would have had to
start from zero. Also mentioned in the book, everyone Knows
Gone is here, But no, there these are things people
know that people most people that have been in these spaces. No. Yeah,
the reality is that hundreds were deported every single week

(13:30):
during Obama, But these arrests were so normalized and made
routine that the media was not paying attention to them.
And they weren't reported like they're being reported today. And yes,
I know that it is true that the detainments are
more visible and more violent right now. I'm not denying
that that is happening. But to say that, to say

(13:53):
something like why can't we just have Obama back, that's
like saying, oh, deportations are okay as long as I'm
not seeing them. As long as they're not in my
backyard and not in my line of sight, I don't care. Yeah. So,
in short, ICE has sucked from the beginning. They sucked
during Bush, they sucked during Obama, and they sucked now.
They've always been sucky. During Trump one point zero, he

(14:19):
signed an executive order then increased ICE staffing by ten thousand,
and they gave them even more powers, and so arrest
by ICE grew even more with that, So they're the
arrest of US citizens. And they were continuing the same
raids that were happening during Obama, Like the Obama administration
increased workplace raids, which again have always been a thing,

(14:43):
but they just increased more and they also increased nighttime
home raids. But now they're just later and more extreme
with Trump. And then they added on places of worship
and education. Yeah. Again, during Trump two point zero, things
look worse than they are worse they are. ICE is
already not high. Recruitment standards have been lowered a ton

(15:06):
before twenty twenty five ro SO Enforcement at a removal
operation officers they had to complete a thirteen week academy.
Do you want to guess what that was cut down
to four weeks in half? So half of thirteen six
point five, So half of that they cut the Spanish

(15:27):
language courses that were required. Those are gone. And so
allegedly the amount of things that they train now is
forty seven in honor of Trump being the forty seventh president.
No way, where'd you see this? Wikipedia? It's alleged. Oh
my god, a source in Wikipedia. You know how you
look at Wikipedia and then you click on the actual
source that comes from Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh wow. I

(15:49):
mean that would be so stupid if that's true. That's
the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Well, what don't
it's one of the many stupidest things. Yes, that's more
like it. And The Intercept published a report by the
DHS Officer of Inspector General revealing that one thy two

(16:12):
hundred and twenty four sexual abuse complaints while in immigration
custody were filed between January twenty ten and June twenty seventeen.
What was the number again, two hundred and twenty four
sexual abuse points. Those are the ones that were filed, right,
and again that was twenty ten to twenty seventeen. Contrary

(16:33):
to what ICE claims, only two percent of these one
thousand plus complaints were investigated. Wow, And we've talked about
this number before in Spooky Tales, but the Kenot Border
Initiative reported that in twenty twenty they had received four
hundred and forty two reports of alleged abuse by border

(16:56):
patrol and ICE agents combined. Also in twenty twenty, which
I think we've also talked about this too, but also
in twenty twenty, a whistle blower, nurse and former employee
Don Wooden, came out and spoke about women being versibly
serilized in a Georgia ICE facility, the Irwin County Detention Center.

(17:17):
And these reports were confirmed by an investigation from the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the US
Senate in November twenty twenty two. So this was confirmed
the Office of Inspector General reported that medically unnecessary hysterectomies
also occurred at other facilities in twenty twenty beyond the

(17:41):
Erwin Detention Center, which is not surprising to hear. Yeah,
And so they to investigate this like this report. They
were looking at the records of the medically necessary major
surgeries and it was supposed to be provided the Ice
Health Service Core so ih SC for short. And they

(18:06):
took so long to first provide any records if they
were even like usable, if they had enough information to
begin with. But what they had they analyzed, they hired
their own obgyn to doctor to review those files that
the investigating people did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the OIG, so
the Office of Inspector General finally got these records from

(18:29):
the IHSC after like a long ass time because they
took forever to provide it and they had their own
OBGI and doctor to review those medical files. And so
they reviewed hysterectomies performed on women in ice detention centers
between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one, and so they

(18:50):
found between those years, oh so all of them. So
the sixth they reviewed six of those cases that were
provided by the HSC, and they did not These records
did not demonstrate that a hysterectomy was the appropriate course
of treatment. So basically confirming, confirming, yeah. And then the

(19:10):
rapport had a footnote that said that like a lot
of these files couldn't be reviewed properly because like they
they said, this was like this happened, but they didn't
like have documentation as to why it was medically necessary.
So there's just like no documentation, no documentation exactly. In short, yeah,

(19:31):
no documentation. And so this report found that one third
of medical procedures performed on immigrants in ICE custody were
not properly authorized. So outside of hysterectomies, one third of
all medical procedures during those years were authorized, yes, either

(19:52):
because of lack of I think it was the same
detention center that I just said, the one in Georgia
only had once banished speaking staff, and they didn't provide
interpretation services, and whenever they had it was like volunteers,
and they were the ones who said no, only one
person's book spanage on staff, damn. And all I can

(20:14):
find that came of this investigation is that ICE promised
they would do better, that they would change, yeah, and
that's it. Wow, there's another troubling thing with this new
ICE under Trump, well, this new additional version of ICE,
Like it's still the same ICE, but they have they
have more power now, right right, right right. So one

(20:35):
of these new troubling things is the increase of playing
closed ICE agents and so since that's been a thing,
there has been an increase of ICE impersonators committing unlawful actions. Yeah. So,
PBS News Hour reported kidnappings, robberies, fraud, and sexual assaults

(20:57):
have all happened, and these are linked to in person
KTLA reported that ICE has been criticized for Oh no,
I'm gonna skip that. We all know that they've been
criticized for that, but for failure to identify themselves. Oh well, okay,
So the failure to identify themselves is helping these impersonators
because they don't need to identify themselves, and so I

(21:19):
neither do the imprisonators. According to the Congressional Caucus for
Women's Issues, the masking of ICE agents has contributed to
the impersonations and increase exposure of women, especially immigrants, to
risk of sexual assault. And it's just what an easy
thing to impersonate. They're wearing normal clothes and masks, right

(21:41):
and refusing to identify themselves. Yes, yes, And so there
has been an increase in that kind of stuff happening,
because yeah, if there was an actual policy and rule
where they had a uniform and they had to identify
themselves and these people pretending to be them wouldn't be
able to pretend to be them right as easily. So
of course that's another risk. I don't know, horrible thing

(22:04):
happening under all this, and I have no official nights
fancy segue, but that was a brief history and like
currently rise is doing, and now I want to talk
a little bit about Operation Loan Star. So Operation Loan
Star began in twenty twenty one and it's still going on.
This was a joint operation, is I guess, a joint

(22:28):
operation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the
Texas Military Department. And this operation was created to fight
these are Greg Abbot's words, right to fight to fight
the rise of illegal immigration, illegal drug trade, and human smuggling.
Like he cares about those things, okay, right, And according

(22:52):
to Abbot, Greg Abbot, and since the operation began, migrants
arrested at the Tech his border have gone up two
hundred and seventy eight percent, and they, according to them,
have apprehended five hundred and thirteen thousand, seven hundred migrants
thanks to this operation. And this little operation of THEIRS

(23:17):
is costing two point five million dollars per week. Oh
my god, imagine everything else, anything else you could pay
in fund with that money, right, and two billion per year?
Wow at the height. At the height of this operation,
ten thousand National Guard members were deployed in support of it.
This isn't just Texas National Guard like there was like Kansas,

(23:40):
North Dakota, Florida. Fourteen states have sent five hundred National
Guard soldiers in support of Operation Loan Star and also
law enforcement officers a lot from Florida Chucking. Despite the
high numbers of arrest greg Abbott claims this operation has

(24:03):
obtained attained whatever. In an investigation by three separate groups,
Pro Publica, the Texas Tribune, and the Marshall Project have
found that the Texas Department of Public Safety counted at
least two thousand arrests that had zero links to Operation
Loan Star or the border. They just tacked on these
two thousand arrests that were made That's what they always do,

(24:26):
as we talked about in the Border Patrol series, they
inflate the numbers to make it look like they're doing
more than they are, like they need more funding than
they need to justify the funny they do have. That's
exactly what they're doing, and they are still doing it
like to this day, patting their numbers lying yep. And

(24:49):
so this operation is not only super expensive in a
state that has the lowest mental health resources available, it's
also extremely dangerous. Since Operation lo Star began, high speed
chases of migrants, like car chases have been have risen, risen,
risen right, Yeah, have gone up, and many of these

(25:13):
high speed car chases have been fatal. The Human Rights
Watch found that more than two thirds of police chases
and Texas were taking place or began during Operation Loan Star,
and seventy four people have died from these car chases. Wow.
One hundred and eighty nine have been injured since Operation

(25:35):
Loan Stars started. Vehicle pursuit death rates in Texas have
been eight times higher than everywhere else in the US. Wow.
As in, since this operation began, you're eight times more
likely to die in a high speed car chase than
you are like in any other state. Damn, damn. Don't
you don't want to be contriving in Texas. That's no.

(25:58):
These pursuits have caused an average of one hundred and
seventy seven thousand dollars in property damage every month. Wow,
before Operation Loane Star, just from regular old crashes, it
was seventy thousand a month. To fund this operation. Money
has been taken from other Texas government agencies, of course,

(26:20):
such as the Department of Criminal Justice and Federal COVID
AID was supposed to be Federal COVID God. Famously, Texas
was horrible during COVID For a state so far not
densely populated, they had a right like that shouldn't have happened.

(26:40):
It shouldn't have, but it did because all this money
was going elsewhere. Another discussing part of this operation has
been the buzzing of migrants to sanctuary cities YEP and
Greg Abbot bitch as. Greg Abbot has stated that the
purpose of migrants of the migrant bussing program was to

(27:02):
provide Texas border town's relief from migrant arrivals that were
the fall of Biden's immigration policies. Mind you, this is me,
not Greg Abbit. The Biden administration had strong deportation numbers.
It had a very they pretended to care about immigration,
but they again very strong deportation numbers. So to say

(27:26):
that it was the fall of Biden's immigration policies is
just another line a lot. Yeah. And he was simply
bringing the costs of the border crisis to democratic cities
because they were dismissing the crisis. Yeah, we're shaking our heads. Yeah.
And speaking of these costs, charter bus companies were paid

(27:52):
twenty six hundred and fifty per migrant to bus. This
is individual each INDI visual migrants in there and that bust.
That's how much money they received to do this. And
this money was coming from both private donors and the
Texas legislature. That is so disgusting. Very and when all

(28:14):
this was happening, the Republican officials in the administration were
like chewing this on. Of course, they were, yeah, like
I remember, I remember the then White House Press Secretary
Jen Saki. I think how you say her name, Pasaki?
That doesn't sound like that bitch. Yeah. So in twenty
twenty two, she said it was quote nice, the state

(28:36):
of Texas is helping migrants get to their final destination.
Oh my god. And at the same time, the White
House and other Democrats were calling the busting program a
political stunt, which it was. Yeah, but these aren't games,
these are people's lives, like right, and I don't know,
it's just discussing. Yeah, but the busting program was paused

(28:59):
in twenty twenty four or because like the money is
dwindling even for this, that COVID money is running out.
That's not official. It was just saying, yeah, you have
to be specific. Okay. So there's been a bunch of
lawsuits against Abbott for Operation Loan Star, some still ongoing,

(29:23):
some ended up siding with like like things like yes,
you can discriminate, you can racially profile, which again already happened.
Any new rulings on that is just a further agreement
on the previous one. Yeah. Yeah, But yet another horrible
thing that happened during Operation Loan Star is the Eagle

(29:45):
Pass Park standoff. Do you remember this? Yeah, okay, Yeah,
So Shelby Park is a forty seven acre park in
Eagle Pass, which is along the Rio Grande, which we
know separates us in Mexico. It's the very dangerous river
that has caused many, many deaths because of policies by

(30:07):
I mean both countries, but more than US. So on
January eleventh, twenty twenty four, Greg Abbott signed an emergency
declaration to close the park because of the border crisis
and the need to secure the border. These are his
reasons that he gave. And so because of that order,
the National Guard took control of the park and even

(30:27):
blocked out Border Patrol. And so border patrol is a
federal entity, right, and the National Guard is the Texas
National Guard. So now this was an incident of a
national state army standing up against federal forces on immigration.

(30:47):
And so Borderbacho had been using this area to house
or to hold in migrants. It was like a point
of entry basically where migrants would come up to hear
and they would say, yes asylum, let's put you into center,
you are being processed. So on. They would be doing
this at Shelby Park, and the National Guard in greg Abbot,
this order that he gave is because he didn't want

(31:10):
that to even be that. He didn't want anyone coming
through there like this. He's like, this is not a
point of entry. Basically even though it was being used
as a point of entry. And so the National Guard
put up seawire again then to a level O pressor. Yeah,
they put up seawire to surround the park and while
border patrol tried to cut it to continue processing. Like
border patrol was doing their job, which I hate saying

(31:33):
they were trying to process migrants, right, and so border
patrol was trying to cut this seawire and basically they
were told by the courts, no, you can't do that,
and so yeah, National Guard Texas National Guard was blocking
off federal border patrols from entering, and so the area
was closed down. And after it was closed down, three

(31:53):
migrants were found drowned in the river, and my god,
border patrol claimed that they had told the national Guard,
and the national Guard took no action. But then the
National Guard says they were alerted after the drowning had
already happened. And according to people that lived nearby, this

(32:15):
looked like a quote war zone in a throat of
the world country. Wow, that's how it looked because of
how it was locked down and there was like sea
wire everywhere and no one was allowed to enter, not
even border patrol as you could see. And so after
this drowning happened, Texas conducted an investigation and they said

(32:38):
that quote based on that investigation, the two Border Patrol
agents who approached the gate on January twelfth did not
ask for admission to Shelby Park to respond to an emergency,
nor do they advise either the guardsmen or the staff
sergeant that any emergency situation existed. So basically, Border Patrol
didn't tell the National Guard that there was a migrants

(33:01):
that were at risk of drowning. And it's like they,
in their pettiness, they're playing with people's lives. Yeah, they're
treating this like a game and people are dying exactly.
And when this Eagle Park situation happened, there was National
Guard people that were like, we can't do this, Like

(33:22):
we're being told not to help them, but we can't
not help a mother and her children. Yeah, and they
were actually helping, which is wild to say. Not the
Texas once it was like these were I saw a
Latino National guardsman who medic who was I want to
say it was either Kansas or North Dakota's a Midwest state.
I don't remember the state anymore. But he and his

(33:45):
sick unit ended up like getting people out of rivers
because they couldn't not help, even though that was their orders.
And there was like low morale of the National Guard
that was sent here because they were like, we're not
okay with this. Of course they didn't. They didn't want
to be there, yes, exactly, they didn't want to not
be helping. Like it's like a human, a basic human

(34:07):
want to help someone, Yeah, in like need, especially in
emergency situations, you know. Yes, So, the Department of Justice
said that a Mexican search and rescue team recovered the
bodies of the three victims, wow Vic Derma de la

(34:28):
Sancha Cerros, who was thirty three, George Ruby, who was ten,
and Jonathan Agustine Brionez de la Sancha who was eight,
and they were from the state of Mexico and they
were trying to cross the border to escape drug cartol
related violence. And so while the National Guard and Barbitra

(34:48):
are pointing fingers blaming each other, yes, the borb patrol
was found to not have told the National Guard, who
would have probably gone to save them, something that Borbatrals
sometimes they themselves don't on purpose. While all this is happening.
If they had just let it a point of entry,
which it was, could have reached. Yes, exactly. So point

(35:10):
of entries not to say I'm against equote illegal immigration.
Obviously I don't believe in illegal immigration, right, I don't
believe I can do that famously, we don't believe. But
point of entries are a human right. They are like
a what is that thing that we do? The United

(35:31):
States doesn't recognize that. Everyone else in the world. Almost
everyone else in the world does, like the But it's
a human right to see. Yeah, asylum somewhere and countries
aren't supposed to have point of entries for people to
seek asylum because it is illegal, and it is a
right to seek asylum. Mind you, everything in Latin America

(35:54):
and the world is the United States fault, including cartels,
even though they would never admit it. Yeah. And so
these people would not even be feeling the need to
seek not feeling the need. They wouldn't need to seek
asylum if it wasn't for the United States, Yeah, which
is what we've been saying. Yeah. And it wasn't until

(36:16):
April of this year that National Guard presence was drastically
decreased and the park finally reopened. Really. Yeah, it was
like a little over a year that this park remained
under National Guard like custody and nobody could enter. Wow.
Another thing, another horrible, discussing thing that came from the

(36:39):
Operation Loan Star was the attempt for Texas to make
their own wall. Right. So, Texas officials have been placing
this razor wire across the US Mexico border since Operation
Loan Star began, and by April of twenty twenty four,
they had unspooled over one hundred miles of this wire

(37:02):
to keep migrants and asylum seekers out. Disgusting. Yeah, and
so this is a medic that was stationed there from
but I don't know where the medic is from, if
they're from the National Guard in Texas or another National
Guard unit, but they this medic sent an email to

(37:26):
command staff about what he witnessed so these people. So,
although he supported the operation, he warned that recent practices
stepped over a line into inhumane treatment of vulnerable people.
So it's like it's something. It's not as good as
I would want the statement to be, but it's something.

(37:49):
So in his email, he shared the story of a
four year old girl. And sorry, this is heavy. This
what is upcoming? This has already been this. Topics are
always heavy, right, but this is extra hard to hear.
So in his email, he shared the story of a
four year old girl who tried to cross the wire
but was pushed back by Texas National Guard members and

(38:10):
they over one hundred degree he The child fainted from
exhaustion and remained unresponsive while he tried to treat her.
On that same day, a father with a lacerated leg
told the trooper that he has sustained this laceration while
pulling his child out of a trap in the water.
And why are there traps in the water? What the

(38:33):
fuck is that? Right? These were those barrels covered with wire.
It's part of Yeah, that's what I mean, Like they
put those there. They literally deliberately not literally, they're deliberately
harming people and then refusing to help them. Yeah, and
it's like and then blaming them for their own death. Yeah,

(38:54):
like we saw during your series that you did. The
river alone is like it's a dangerous, yes, a determ,
but now on top of the river, it's made it
more dangerous. They're putting on purpose barrels covered in wire. Yeah,
that same night. This is on the same day. That
same night, this medic found a nineteen year old woman

(39:15):
caught in the wire, doubled over in pain as she
suffered a miscarriage. Oh my god. And like, this isn't
bordering on hold on what did he read? Let me
go back to this email. This isn't stepping over a
line into inhuman treatment of vulnerab people. This is way
over the line, way over the line. Even putting those

(39:37):
without anyone being hurt, yet putting those barrels with the
wire on them, that's crossing a line. Yeah, to even
have created such a policy, it's like the level of
gyumanization that is required, the thought to even think of
these discussing policies. And it's like you don't see immigrants

(40:01):
as people, you know, and they don't. To me what
it feels like, it like putting a wrap for a
rat in your fucking house, and that's what they think
they're doing. And this is and that's oppissed to me off, like, oh,
you wouldn't let such and said in your house. This
country is in your house. You live here with thousands
of other people. It's like such a crazy entitle thing

(40:22):
to fucking say yes exactly, man, sorry, say it. Stop yelling.
I'm not no no. In July twenty twenty three, Texas
officials installed a roughly one thousand foot string of bright
orange buoys in the Rio Grand between you go past

(40:42):
and Piedras Negras, Mexico. And these floating buoys consisted of
these barrels that were four feet in diameter, and they
like spun around in the water, that's what they do,
so that if someone tried to climb these buoys, the
person would slip back word into the water so they
couldn't hold on to them. And then some of these

(41:04):
had the wire around them as well. This is like
hunger game shit, like what they did to the kids
in the in the fucking Hungary games, like to torture them.
This is on that level. Yeah, And people read those
and cry about fictional characters going through these things, and
there's real people, there's real people being literally tortured by

(41:25):
the government, like this is torture, it is. And some
of these buoys also also had cautionary messages for migrants
saying entrance is prohibited or no crossing between the booies themselves.
There was dangerous sobblades that obviously cut people. This is

(41:47):
fucking crazy. Like I knew it's insane, but I feel
like hearing it all after one after the other, and
not just that. They also had stainless steel nants floating
below the buoyese to keep migrants from swimming under neath
to reach the other side. Like this is this is torture,
trapping them in the water so they could die. This
is deliberately killing people. Yes, but you know what if

(42:10):
people here hear this and they don't care about migrants
or the people that are being trapped by this. There's
also wildlife being killed. Oh right, because a lot some people,
some people out there of a certain hueless shade, Yeah,
care more about animals than people. Right. Oh, you're crying

(42:32):
about dogs left behind by people have been detained disappeared
by eyes, but not not one fuck about the people
that have been disappeared by eyes. I'm like, dude, So
these border booize garnered a ton of criticism, rightfully, so
like both humanitarian groups and diplomatic for diplomatic reason, who

(42:59):
fight them? I feel like, who is sitting there making
torture devices? Thank you? Thank you? Who is doing this.
I don't know. I didn't look into who manufactured these,
but like you look back, people look back at World
War two right now and talk about the evil Nazi scientists,
some evil purdue. I don't know what these things are called.

(43:19):
People that make these things, but some evil company made
this boo yes, designed is yeah, ny did put it
into a little buoy maker whatever they're I don't know
how these are made, but you know what I mean? Yeah,
and then put them in the water. HM. In August

(43:40):
twenty twenty three, the body of a drowned migrant was
found along that barrier, and Texas officials claimed that the
person died upstream and floated into the buize. They were
trapped by the buoizeatly, and that's really what they felt
or what their explanation explained it away. If that's really

(44:02):
why did they put these there? That was their goal,
that was their intention. Yeah, and now they're gonna be like, oh,
actually no, they just ended up there. That wasn't done
on purpose by those things, which that was the whole
point of those things. Yeah. The what do they people
keep repeating now the violence has a purpose or something,
the fear I don't know what people keep saying, have

(44:22):
you seen no idea what that is? Oh? Yeah, people
keep writing this like the violence is the purpose or
the oh whatever, Oh I know what you're talking about now.
It's because people are all like, oh, why are they
so violent? And they're like, the violence is the point
something like that. Yeah, exactly, And so in this, in
the same manner, the point was for that migrant to
be trying to write and killed but they don't even

(44:44):
known up to it, which obviously wouldn't make it writing,
but right, but at least like, if you're gonna be
a fucking bitch, own up to be in a fucking bitch,
you know what I mean. If you're gonna be a
little hateful little fucking bitch, I own up to be
in a hayful little bit. This is the same ship
like those fucking like people that vote for Trump and
they're like, ooh oh you could even say you would
for him, or people will get mad at you flipped

(45:04):
you off. Like if you're so private, decision, own it.
And if you get fucking hit in your face for
it to fucking bad, bitch, to fucking bat exactly exactly.
Own your decisions, have accountability. You know. Yeah, not that
I'm advocating for violence or whatever. No, of course not. No,
we're not. We're not. Famously, I've never even been in

(45:24):
a fight. Famously, she hasn't, and neither have I. No,
because we're just peaceful, you know people. Yeah, these are
just very inhuman practices that are literally creating more dangerous situations.
Then we're already dangerous situations, like it's increasing the danger.

(45:45):
And again, beyond the human rights aspect of these buoys,
there's also again the environmental impact also, and so on
top of that, there's also the question of sovereignty and
transnational borders. Because this is a river in between where
does the river begin an end for each country. Bondies
of water move and shift, there's waves like the Yeah,

(46:13):
this is a moving boundary line like the nature. They're
gonna buy it, right, your fucking big borders. Seventy nine
percent of the strings between these buoys cross into Mexico.
They're in Mexico, And what kind of shit is that
they had to go and move the buoys closer to
the US. But this is water, it moves, they shoul

(46:34):
want to be in there. So in short, Operation Loan
Star worsened already existing racial profiling and unconstitutional policing. It
also mostly arrested people, again like these operations always do.

(46:56):
They detained more mostly low level offenses like trespassing, and
not what they claimed that they were going after, these
drug traffickers, human smugglers, dangerous criminals. The only crime was
the crime they created, the crime of crossing into the US.
This wasn't always a crime. And these are the people
being detained, that is their only crime. They made them criminals,

(47:20):
like we've been saying abriation. Lone Star has also overwhelmingly
prosecuted US citizens, Ford regulator defenses, human smuggling, now weapons charges.
It also has expanded well beyond the border, which it's
supposed to stay at the border, and it hasn't because
these things always expand, right, and they're lying about the

(47:43):
number of arrests in the first place. So it's just
been this expensive waste of money. It's been causing more
killing more people, causing more accidents, and it's not even
doing what it's supposed to be doing, right except wasting money.

(48:04):
And that she piss me off the operation, not the
money part, because like this again, this money could be
going towards I don't know the snap benefits people haven't received,
but because it would never do that, they would never yep,
And yeah, that was a brief history of ice and

(48:24):
then like present day ice things and operation don't start.
Because even though this is a history podcast, one day
someone's gonna look back at this and be like, one
day someone will say this was wrong. Despite the people
saying it was, it's wrong. Now people are gonna look
at being like I never agreed with that, even though
they did liked. Yeah, I read when I was reading

(48:48):
about Operation Sorry, I read a lot of people that
are like, because you know, within families that will be
someone who believes in something and someone who doesn't. Ye right,
And so there was a family that was being interviewed
by some Texas news paper and the dad about both
like third generation of Mexicans or something, so in Texas.
So the dad was born here, so was the daughter.

(49:11):
But the dad is more Republican than the daughter. And
the dad is like, I don't agree with my daughter
on what she believes, but even I believe this is
too far about Operation Loan Star and what they were
doing with like the buoize and yeah, the wire so
but this is what happens when you dehumanize a class
of people. Extremism like this is a form of extremism.

(49:35):
This is extremist violence against migrants, perpetry about the state. Yeah,
and it's happened because people historically have not given one
single fuck about migrants. It has been okay thus far,
and so now it looks like too much. But it
took something to get here, It's right steps, It took levels,

(49:57):
and at level one they didn't care. Level two. Now
it's like at one hundred, and now now you care
or not not everyone does or not not everyone does. Yeah,
but like this man who was a Republican for his
whole life and still doesn't agree with everything that Stara does,
even he went as far as would admit he doesn't
agree with what Greg Abbet is doing. So there's hope. Yeah,

(50:22):
it's doing Julie every day. Actually, at the time of recording,
Mom Donnie won the name is Mom Donnie. We're not
in New York famously, but I love that. And see
what happened on Yeah, it's what happened with Prop fifty. Yeah. Yeah,
and we need all the good signs we can and again,

(50:42):
you know, we can have hope in the establishment and
then maybe let down later, but we need to hold
on to hope for yeah, yeah, so yeah, but yeah,
I did want to share this to follow up on
your series of the history Border Patrol, because yeah, it's
all tied together, it all connects so and definitely because
even as you were talking on you we mentioned throughout

(51:02):
like we're seeing threads of what has been established early
on by the Border Patrol and the continuation of that.
Right this Operation Lone Star is a continuation and increase
ant extreme version of the Border patroled earlier policies of

(51:24):
using nature as a deterrent. Right Like, it's it's just everything.
It like the Border Patrol and their previous operations. It's
all like a predecester to now exactly exactly all right,
I guess that brings us to the end, it does,
it does, Okay, reminder that if we want to support

(51:49):
us on Patreon, we do have a weekly episode over
there where we go over current events and scream y'all
throw up and then shure what brings us joy. Sometimes
we go over fun gossip and other times it's just
very depressing yeah things. So that's what we do over there,
and if you want to support us there you can.
We also take part of that and donate it to

(52:10):
some organization lately, it's because it's been easy to just
do the same one. It's been an organization that helps
cara mashers in LA who have been facing larger deportations
or have been target people facing the deportations targeted. Thank you,
That's the word I was looking for during these deportations.
And yeah, because of that, the people who have not

(52:32):
been departed and are afraid to leave their homes and
go to work, and so the organization has been giving
them groceries and helping them you know, live. So yeah,
all this information is in the show notes and yeah,
other than that, we hope that this was one less
estoniaknown for you by by Estorias Are Known. Is produced

(52:56):
by Carmen and Christina. Researched by Carmen and Christina, edited
by Christina. You can find sources for every episode at
estudias Unknown dot com and in our show notes. Creating
the podcast has a lot of work, so if you
want to help us out financially, you can do so
by supporting us on Patreon at Patreon dot com, Slash Studios,
an own podcast,

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