Texas National Guard ‘Camouflaged as Civilians’ at Immigration Detention Sites, Rep. Joaquin Castro Says

Texas National Guard members are operating inside immigration detention facilities across the state and, in some cases, doing so in civilian clothing, according to Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro.

The lawmaker told the San Antonio Express-News that he first learned of the Guard’s presence from sources not authorized to speak publicly and later confirmed the information during visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. He publicly raised the issue during a live Facebook video on Monday, where he also discussed detention conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, including a measles outbreak.

According to Castro, Guard members are assisting ICE operations at detention and processing centers in Dilley, Pearsall, and other Texas cities. He said some of the troops are not wearing military uniforms.

“The Texas National Guard that is embedded under Greg Abbott’s orders. He has forced the Texas National Guard to do deportation work at these detention centers,” Castro said in his Facebook Live. “So the Texas National Guard is not in their uniforms. He doesn’t let them wear their uniforms. They’re basically camouflaged as civilians in these detention centers.”

Castro said the deployments began sometime last year, coinciding with the Trump administration’s expanded deportation efforts, and involve “hundreds” of Guard members statewide.

He added that at the Dilley family detention center, Guard members operate out of a separate administrative building and do not cross the facility’s internal boundary separating staff areas from spaces where families and children are housed. At the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, an adult detention facility, he said Guard members operate beyond administrative areas.

The Dilley facility and another center in Karnes City are the only immigration detention sites in the country that hold children with their parents. The Dilley center is operated by private prison contractor CoreCivic under a federal contract. Castro’s comments come amid heightened scrutiny of the facility following the confirmation of two measles cases last week that prompted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to quarantine migrants inside.

Gov. Abbott has frequently deployed the Texas National Guard for border security and domestic law enforcement support under Operation Lone Star. In June, he ordered more than 5,000 Guard members and 2,000 state troopers deployed statewide ahead of immigration-related protests, saying Texas was working “collaboratively with the Trump Administration to arrest, detain, and deport illegal immigrants.”

Originally published on Latin Times