Texas’ immigration enforcement has led to the deaths of 74 people over 29 months in high-speed chases, including seven bystanders, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Monday.
One of those bystanders was a 7-year-old girl out with her grandmother to get ice cream.
The chases were conducted by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, but also by local county sheriffs’ officers and city police who have been enlisted to assist in the states’ multibillion-dollar Operation Lone Star, launched by Gov. Greg Abbott. Participating counties qualify for state money, in return.
Human Rights Watch analyzed Texas DPS records from when Operation Lone Star began in March 2021 to July 2023. It found that more than two-thirds, 3,000, of the vehicle pursuits that DPS engaged in statewide occurred in the 60 counties that are partners in the program. The state has 254 counties.
The group reported that in several of those counties, vehicle chases had jumped by more than 1,000% since Operation Lone Star began, thus disproportionately affecting residents in those counties.
Texas DPS does not record deaths from vehicle pursuits under that category, but Human Rights Watch used information on pursuits documented by DPS and matched them with media reports of vehicle pursuits involving suspected smugglers of immigrants.
“Operation Lone Star puts undue pressure on law enforcement to chase cars, sometimes with very little basis, resulting in deaths of drivers, passengers, and even bystanders,” Norma Herrera, a Texas-based consultant to Human Rights Watch, stated in a news release.
The overwhelming majority of the pursuits, 81%, were initiated because of a traffic violation, with 97% of those being misdemeanors such as speeding or disobeying traffic signals. The average maximum speed in the chases was 91 mph, with one-third involving speeds of more than 100 mph.
According to Human Rights Watch, the death rate from Operation Lone Star vehicle pursuits for the 60 participating counties, is 1 per 112,000 people. A USA Today analysis of vehicle pursuits between 1979 and 2013 set the national rate at 1 per 820,000.
Human Rights Watch said that five of the total bystanders injured were children, all Texas residents. At least seven pursuits ended with injuries to law enforcement officers.
NBC News reached out to the Texas DPS, which pointed to comments Director Steve McCraw made to The New York Times last week. In those comments, he repeated agency guidelines and said discretion whether to pursue is with troopers. He agreed the risks could be mitigated, but said “all you’re doing is rewarding the Mexican cartels.” He said troopers who don’t pursue in a “judicious manner” would be held accountable.
In an email, Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies for “inviting” Mexican cartels to profit from human trafficking and smuggling along the border, putting innocent people in danger. “Mexican cartels and human traffickers have a clear disregard for human life as they smuggle people in high speed pursuits and in dangerous conditions,” she said.
Feeling the impact
Emilia Tambunga and her grandmother Maria Alvarez Tambunga were on their way to get ice cream when they were killed in March, after a man being pursued by a deputy from Crockett County, one of the Operation Lone Star counties, ran a red light and slammed into the pickup carrying them.
Authorities said the driver was suspected of transporting people illegally in the country. The driver, from Louisiana, faces several charges in their deaths and the deaths of two passengers in his vehicle, the Ozona Stockman reported. The deaths led to the introduction of a bill in Congress by Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, for warnings to be issued when a high-speed chase is going on, similar to the Amber Alert.
Community residents where the chases occur are feeling the impact. Human Rights Watch’s report quotes Norma Saldaña, whose fence was damaged as a result of a vehicle chase. A 19-year-old from McAllen who was being pursued by Texas DPS died in the chase that ended in Edinburg.
Saldaña told Human Rights Watch she supports law enforcement for securing the border but was upset by what happened. She said damage to her property fence was $25,000 and she was not compensated by any agencies involved.
“You know what I had to do the next day after that accident? Because there was so much blood on the ground? So much blood everywhere! I had to take some holy water and sprinkle it over the ground,” she told the group.
Many police and law enforcement departments have curbed the use of high-speed pursuits and set restrictions on when officers can engage in them, deciding risks outweigh gains. Houston police adopted restrictions on them in September after the mother of a sergeant’s mother was killed while waiting in traffic after being hit by a driver fleeing police.
High-speed chases dropped 40% the following month and chase-related collisions fell 35%, the Houston Chronicle reported.
However, on Monday, there were calls for harsher penalties for those who flee from police after a high-speed chase left a 19-year-old bystander dead, according to Houston Public Media.
Human Rights Watch spokeswoman Alison Parker said there is potential for further increase in high-speed chases in Texas with proposed immigration enforcement laws awaiting Abbott’s signature. One ups the penalty for smuggling people in the country or assisting those believed to be illegally here and the other allows any peace officer to arrest a person they suspect may have entered the country illegally.
With those proposed laws, “the incentive for law enforcement to engage in these deadly chases has only increased,” Parker said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
