At least 17 Texas National Guard have died securing the border — with one drowning trying to save migrants
At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died securing the US southern border — with one drowning in the Rio Grande while trying to save migrants.
The death toll was revealed during an Aug. 20 meeting of Texas’ state House Committee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs.
Shelia Bailey Taylor, the Texas Military Department director of state administration, was discussing a new state law that provides $500,000 to families of fallen service members deployed under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border mission.
The legislation was inspired by the death of Guardsman Bishop Evans, who drowned in April 2022 after jumping into the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and saving a pair of migrants who were trying to enter the country illegally.
Many of the deaths of other Guard members’ assigned to the border were not directly related to the migrant mission.
They included at least five suicides, a motorcycle crash, and a fatal medical emergency at a hotel where troops were staying, according to local reports and Texas military officials.
But that provides little solace to the families of the fallen Guardsmen.
“If laws had been passed to secure the border by [Vice President Kamala] Harris and [President Joe] Biden, then my son would still be here,” said Jessica Lever, whose son DaJuan Townes, 19, was killed in February 2022 during an accidental shooting at Fort Clark Springs.
“I do feel like his country failed him,” Lever, 43, told The Post.
Since March 2021, Texas Guard members have been assigned to the border alongside other state law enforcement officials as part of Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which was implemented to combat the surge in illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the United States.
Roughly 8 million migrants have illegally entered the United States in record waves since June 2021, according to federal data. In March 2021, Biden tapped Harris to serve as his “border czar” to address to the roots causes of unlawful immigration across the southwest border with Mexico.
“The tragic deaths of the 17 National Guard members at the border are a direct result of this current administration’s failed policies,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
“The weak policies and poor management from our ineffective border czar, Kamala Harris, and the White House put our soldiers in dangerous conditions, and these deaths are a clear sign of their failures.”
