FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Thursday, August 3, 2023 

Media Contact: media@theyoungcenter.org 

Harlingen, Texas— Yesterday, a Houston Chronicle investigation revealed that Texas troopers have been intentionally separating dozens of immigrant families at the southern border. Troopers working under Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star have torn apart at least 26 fathers from their children, charging the fathers with trespassing and holding them in state criminal custody while their spouses and children are transferred to Border Patrol agents. This policy is likely to have the same outcome as the Trump-era ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy enacted and then halted by public outrage five years ago: the possibility of children being permanently separated from loving parents.  

Olivia Pena, Co-Director of Child Advocate Program at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said: 

"Ripping children from their fathers is only the latest in Abbott’s deliberately callous and inhumane attacks, which, as we witnessed earlier this month, included pushing children seeking safety back into the Rio Grande River, denying families water in the deadly heat, and forcing children and pregnant people to crawl through razor wire, enduring severe lacerations, miscarriages, and other injuries. These cruelties must end. The Biden Administration should immediately take action to end Operation Lone Star. Children deserve safety. They deserve to be with their families. And they have a right to seek safety. Every day the Biden administration’s unlawful asylum ban remains intact is a day that children and families continue to be put in devastating situations like the ones here in Texas. It’s far past time for the Biden administration to restore safe and fair access to asylum for all." 

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Anabel Mendoza at media@theyoungcenter.org