Operation Lone Star, the border security push by Gov. Greg Abbott, has been in the news for months, and now, after Specialist Bishop Evans’s death, the Military Department of the state is actively discouraging further water rescues by service members. Evans, a member of the Texas Army National Guard, died last month while attempting to rescue drowning immigrants.
“That has raised concerns from both immigrant’s rights activists and service members, supporters outside the [Texas] Legislature and even within the Legislature,” says James Barragán, the reporter who first broke the story alongside the Military Times. “Because these folks are trained to help people, that’s why they join the military. So if you’re asking them not to intervene in a life-threatening situation, that’s not really what they’re there to do.”