Texas immigration enforcement is causing high-speed chase deaths: report

Texas state and county police enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) immigration policies are engaging in risky high-speed pursuits and causing an upsurge in deadly crashes, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

According to the analysis, at least 74 people died and 189 were injured in 49 deadly auto chases between March 2021, when Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, and this July.

Those 49 lethal chases were reportedly initiated by either Texas troopers or local agencies in counties enforcing Operation Lone Star.

Texas officials say President Biden’s border policies are to blame.

“President Biden’s reckless open border policies invite Mexican cartels to profit off the chaos through dangerous human trafficking and smuggling operations along the border that endanger innocent lives,” Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Abbott, told The Hill in an email.

“Mexican cartels and human traffickers have a clear disregard for human life as they smuggle people in high-speed pursuits and in dangerous conditions, like the 53 migrants who died in a tractor trailer in San Antonio last year.”

Overall, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers engaged in 5,230 pursuits in the state’s 254 counties in that time period, 3,358 of which took place in the 60 counties enforcing Abbott’s immigration policy.

“This means Operation Lone Star county residents are experiencing a disproportionate share of vehicle pursuits across the state,” reads the report.

The casualties of the ill-fated pursuits have included drivers and passengers of involved vehicles, according to the report, but also innocent bystanders, in one case a 7-year-old girl who was struck by a fleeing truck driven by a Louisiana resident.

“Governor Abbott has deployed thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers to respond to this Biden-made border crisis and save lives,” said Eze.

“Since launching Operation Lone Star, they have apprehended over 485,000 illegal immigrants, seized over 449 million lethal doses of fentanyl, and arrested over 36,800 criminals — all of which would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and our country thanks to President Biden.”

But the HRW report found that Operation Lone Star’s enforcers, particularly DPS troopers, have engaged in “unnecessary and dangerous aggression.”

According to the analysis, 81 percent of the chases in Operation Lone Star counties over that time period started with a traffic violation, and 97 percent of those violations were misdemeanors such as failing to stop at a stop sign.

Earlier this month, eight people died in southern Texas after a Honda driven by a suspected human smuggler crashed head-first into an SUV heading in the opposite direction. The Honda’s driver was fleeing law enforcement officials from Zavala County, which had joined Operation Lone Star two months earlier.

A report published in September by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended restrictive pursuit policies for law enforcement agencies, given the dangers of high-speed pursuits.

“We recommend that pursuits should take place only when two very specific standards are met (1) A violent crime has been committed and (2) the suspect poses an imminent threat to commit another violent crime,” wrote Police Executive Research Forum Executive Director Chuck Wexler in a prologue to the report.

“If those two conditions are not met, agencies need to look for alternatives to accomplish the same objective. You can get a suspect another day, but you can’t get a life back.”

Under Operation Lone Star, DPS troopers and participating local law enforcement agencies are empowered to arrest people suspected of smuggling undocumented foreign nationals and to proactively enforce trespassing laws against those foreign nationals.