Around 8 p.m. on January 12th, young mother Victerma de la Sancha Cerros attempted to swim the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass, Texas. Her two children, Yorlei Rubi, 10, and Jonathan Agustín Briones de la Sancha, 8, accompanied her. Across the chain link fence and barbed wire stand the Texas National Guard, on command of Greg Abott to block the fence from migrants and Border Patrol Agents.
In a photo from 2019, the two children sit together. With Rubi on the left, her brother is in between the legs of an unknown adult. Rubi is wearing an iridescent mermaid shirt, two blue seashells on each side. Briones de la Sancha wears a gray dinosaur shirt bearing the word GRRR on it. Above them, an unknown adult wraps their arm around Briones de la Sancha, the other hand lying next to Rubi’s leg. Neither of them touch dry land alive again.
Underneath the statue of liberty, on Liberty Island, New York, are the inscribed words Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The three family members had created a human chain, but one of the children broke free, dragging the other two under, gasping for breath. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, the next line reads. The shore of Rio Grande is littered with plastic bags, fast food containers, broken-in shoes.
The poem continues: Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. They cannot swim less than 100 meters towards the other shore. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! it finishes. In Shelby Park, a reflective silver gate obscures pitch-black guns. The lamps are LED bulbs shining over the water. The Texas military does not hear the family in the river being swept away.
Two others had been accompanying them on their swim; Mónica de la Sancha Cerros and her son. They are eventually rescued by Mexican authorities, and are treated for hypothermia. They cross the Rio Grande in a boat, clinging to the rubber, soaking wet. They are absent of her niece and nephew, her son’s cousins. Her son no longer has an aunt. She no longer has a sister.
Governor Greg Abott called for the Texas military to bar control of Eagle Pass, a strip of land against the U.S.-Mexico border, from the federal U.S. Border Patrol. The Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol has the right to remove any barbed wire placed by Texan authorities, but that’s only possible if Border Patrol had access to the area. Abott argues that federal control of borders is lacking, and it’s the state’s right to compensate.
In the weeks since the death of de la Sancha Cerros and her two children, dozens more immigrants have been rescued from the river. Many Republican politicians side with Abott, some, like DeSantis from Florida, have even sent their own National Guard or State Militias. Assemblies are being planned within Eagle Pass, one notable from a group called “God’s Army,” advocating for Abott’s control over the borders.
Tensions with Abbott and higher ranking executives are high, with many pushing Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard in order to stop Operation Lone Star. The Supreme Court has already ruled once against Abbott, and more are possible in the near future. It has become
clear, with migrants pouring into other border states, that the issue is beyond political.The deaths of migrants are being used to fuel Republican and Democratic debates. With further escalation and outcry from human rights organizations, Texas could create a humanitarian crisis.
