The U.S. Department of Justice is working with federal agencies to look into allegations made by a Texas trooper in an email sent to his superiors, in which he described how he and his partner were ordered to push back migrants into the Rio Grande River and deny them water despite the searing heat.
In a statement to NBC News Thursday, DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the department "is aware of the troubling reports" and is collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security as well as "other relevant agencies to assess the situation.”
In an email from July 3, which was obtained by NBC News on Tuesday, the trooper for the Department of Public Safety expressed concerns over these alleged orders.
The email, which details a series of interactions the trooper had with migrants in Eagle Pass from June 24 to July 1, also provided insight into how the use of razor-wire traps and buoy barriers under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative known as Operation Lone Star has further endangered the lives of migrants.
In his email to superiors, the trooper said border enforcement actions “have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”
The contents of the trooper’s email were first reported by the Houston Chronicle on Monday.
Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety have denied the existence of any directive, policy or order instructing troopers to push migrants back into the river or deny them drinking water.
“No orders have been given under this mission that would compromise the lives of those attempting to cross the border illegally,” Abbott said in a joint statement Tuesday.
The Texas DPS has said an internal investigation is underway. The Texas Office of Inspector General is also looking into the claims.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
The email obtained by NBC News did not include the name of the trooper and who the email was sent to.
On June 25, the trooper said he and a colleague encountered a group of 120 migrants, including young children and mothers who were nursing babies. According to the email, they were ordered to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico.”
The trooper wrote in the email that he responded about “the very real potential of exhausted people drowning.” Despite this, the trooper and his partner were ordered to leave, according to the trooper.
On June 30, the trooper said he witnessed a 4-year-old girl attempting to cross through razor wire be “pressed back” by Texas National Guard soldiers in accordance with orders. The child later fainted from the extreme heat, according to the email.
That same day, according to the trooper's email, a man with a significant laceration in his leg said he was injured as he tried to save his child, who had gotten stuck on the razor-wire barrel trap in the river that's being used as a barrier. Another 15-year-old boy broke his leg in one of the traps, which were set in a way that “forced him into the river where it is unsafe to travel,” according to the email.
The trooper said he also came across a 19-year-old woman who had been cut by the wire and was having a miscarriage.
The trooper called attention to how the placement of the razor-wire traps pushed people to travel through the deeper and more unsafe areas of the Rio Grande. The conditions caused at least five people to drown or go missing that week, according to the email.
The trooper urged his superiors to “provide a safe means of travel on solid land to proper collection points.”
The allegations come after Abbott authorized more than $4 billion for Operation Lone Star, which also includes busing thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities and arresting migrants on trespassing charges.
