A video appears to show a Texas Army National Guard member firing projectiles at migrants along the Rio Grande.
Border Report, which reports on news from the U.S.-Mexico border, published a video on Wednesday that appears to show a guard member dressed in black firing through razor wire.
In the video, translated by Newsweek, one man can be heard shouting in Spanish: “There are children, there are children.”
A woman can be heard shouting: “Film it… you’re taking away our human rights.”
Another person can be heard saying: “he’s evil, he’s bad,” while another shouts “murderer, murderer.”
Texas National Guard soldiers stand on patrol near the banks of the Rio Grande on April 2 in El Paso, Texas. A new unverified video appears to show a Texas Army National Guard member firing projectiles at migrants.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Newsweek could not independently verify the video, which appears to be filmed from the Mexican side of the border.
Newsweek has reached out to the Texas Army National Guard via email for comment.
Migration continues to be a divisive issue in the U.S. and will likely be a source of contention in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
The rates of migration have been reaching unprecedented levels. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that there were more than 9.8 million migrant encounters recorded between October 2019 and January 2024.
The Texas border has been a particular flashpoint. Republican Governor Greg Abbott, clashed with the federal government earlier this year over his decision to install miles of razor wire at the border to deter migrants.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a Justice Department request to allow Border Patrol agents to resume cutting the wire, but a defiant Abbott said more razor wire would be added.
Texas’s attempts at cracking down on the border were further stymied when in March federal courts halted the enforcement of Texas immigration law SB4 that would allow police to arrest migrants illegally crossing the border from Mexico. The legal battle continues.
Abbott has spearheaded “Operation Lone Star,” a state-led border security mission that aims to stem the flow of migration.
Democratic legislators have expressed outrage at some of the measures taken under the plan, such as the erection of razor wire and buoy walls, and have called on the Biden administration to intervene.
The Texas-Mexico border has sporadically seen incidents of violence. Last week, a U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot near San Elizario, Texas, by a person in Mexico.
In August 2023, a Texas National Guard soldier shot and wounded a man along the Rio Grande in the El Paso area, after men on the Mexican side of the border began stabbing migrants, Customs and Border Protection officials told The Washington Post.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.