| @TXMilitary shows #OperationMirrorImage program with Mexican police & truck, National Guard boat parked at shore, DPS and military vehicles and water fleet that prevents and stops migrants from coming to Texas illegally across Rio Grande |
Pictures Worth Million Words
in New Narrative Discrediting
Capitol Inside
May 18, 2022
A month after Governor Greg Abbott warned that Texas was on the verge of a migrant surge that the state couldn't handle, the Texas Military Department sought to create the impression in a series of tweets this week that Operation Lone Star has illegal immigration contained at the southern border.
This would be nothing short of miraculous if true. That is hardly the case, however, with the number of people who are coming to Texas illegally rising substantially in the past week.
But the state agency that oversees the National Guard troops at the Rio Grande tweeted nonetheless on Monday that "the integration of maritime assets" has made it possible for the state to prevent migrants from crossing illegally into Texas across the Rio Grande. As evidence to support the claim, the TMD posted a picture of small boat with four Guard members in a small boat that was banked amid tall brush in the shade on the river shore. Abbott had tweeted the same photograph two days earlier along with a showering of accolades on the border security mission that he launched at the border more than a year.
The TMD recycled the immigration prevention assertion in a tweet on Wednesday that featured a photo of four small boats with a dozen Texas Guard members traveling on rough waters behind a larger watercraft. The state military asserted in a Tuesday Twitter post that Operation Lone star is working hand in hand with the Mexican police to keep migrants from entering Texas from the south.
The TMD gave the binational relationship a name - #OperationMirrorImage - which "demonstrates the shared solidarity across the border in the #OperationLoneStar mission to stop would-be illegal immigrants from ever crossing the Rio Grande." The tweet included two photographs.
One of the Operation Mirror Image pictures shows two Texas National Guard members standing across the Rio Grande from two police officers on the south shore with a truck. The second has a Department of Public Safety vehicle and a military truck close to a bridge with a helicopter approaching.
The facts tell a dramatically different story than the state's version. The U.S. Border Patrol for example has apprehended more than 4,000 migrants in Texas in the past five days alone. The lion's share of migrants who've been taken into USBP custody in Texas in recent weeks have been in the areas that are anchored by the border cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio. The number is expected to mushroom when President Joe Biden repeals the Title 42 pandemic policy if a court approves next week or sometime thereafter.
The number of apprehensions that Abbott has been attributing to Operation Lone Star has increased dramatically every week. With the Republican governor calling every major shot, The Texas military appears to be painting a picture of serenity amid triumph with the rotation of promotional photos with the tweets on preventing immigration after all appeared to be lost a few weeks ago based on the rhetoric.
There's no credible evidence to show, however, the Texas border security mission had any effect at all on the flow of immigrants into the state illegally.
more to come ... |
