Thread: Texas prison inmates making the razor wire used by Operation Lone Star along Rio Gran

Texas prison inmates making the razor wire used by Operation Lone Star along Rio Grande



46




John C. Moritz, Corpus Christi Caller Times
Thu, July 27, 2023 at 2:49 AM EDT



AUSTIN — The tangled miles of razor wire strewn along the banks of the Rio Grande are being manufactured by inmates in a minimum-security prison unit in East Texas using equipment purchased with funds from Operation Lone Star.

According to documents available through the Legislative Budget Board's contract online database, the authorization process for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to purchase nearly $1.1 million worth of equipment to make concertina razor wire and barbed wire began three weeks before Gov. Greg Abbott formally launched his signature border security initiative.

Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the criminal justice department, said the prison system makes security wiring that is ubiquitous at nearly all of the state's 100-plus prison units. The new machines allow the agency to expand its reach to the Texas border.

Migrants travel along a steep embankment searching for an opening in the razor wire lining part of the Rio Grande bordering Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 22, 2023.

According to the online documents, Jennifer Kimich, a TDCJ contracts and procurement manager, sought permission on Feb. 14, 2021, to purchase the machinery with money available from Abbott's declaration in the year that unlawful immigration had caused a state of emergency in Texas.

More: Feds sue Texas after Abbott refuses to remove floating barrier, razor wire on Rio Grande

Just over an hour after making her request, Kimich informed the TDCJ purchasing office that permission had been granted to pursue the purchases.

A purchase order dated March 11, 2021, which was five days after Abbott announced the border buildup that has sent thousands of National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to points all along the Rio Grande, shows a contract for $865,291 was awarded to Bergandi Machinery of Ontario, California, for a machine capable of churning out 180 feet of galvanized or stainless steel wiring per minute.

The order shows that the unit was being shipped to TDCJ's Powledge Unit near the East Texas town of Palestine, which has an inmate capacity of 1,137, including 321 for its trusty camp. The unit also has a metal manufacturing plant on site.

A separate order for $218,124 for the purchase of a high-speed barbed wire machine was placed with Bergandi the same day, records show.

Bergandi, bills itself as "a worldwide leader in designing, manufacturing, and servicing machinery for the wire and metal processing" industry with more than 90 years of experience and serving customers in 60 countries.

Powledge is part of a 20,528-acre prison complex that houses four other units, according to TDCJ.

The miles of coiled razor wire placed alongside the banks of the Rio Grande and at the base of nearby barbed wire-topped chain-link fences at some locations along the border have been the source of controversy for Operation Lone Star over the past several weeks.

Photo gallery: A family's journey to enter Texas: Migrants continue crossing the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass

July 11, 2023: Workers assemble large buoys to be used as a border barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass , Texas. The floating barrier is being deployed in an effort to block migrants from entering Texas from Mexico.

USA TODAY reported last week that the hospital in the border community of Eagle Pass was seeing an unprecedented number of migrants, including several children, with lacerations and open wounds from being ensnared in razor wire.

The July 21 report cited internal memos that showed DPS had circulated photos of migrants who were wounded by the wire. One of the images showed a migrant with torso gash so long that the wound had to be stapled shut.

One DPS memo lists seven incidents, between July 4 and July 13, where migrants had been caught in the concertina wire, including a mother and child who had been taken to the hospital with cuts and another migrant who was sent to San Antonio for “treatment with several lacerations that required staples,” according the USA TODAY report.

Abbott, who has insisted he will not back down from his hardline tactics at the border, said he shares "the humanitarian concerns" raised over the use of razor wire. But he places much of the blame on the Biden administration for not imposing more aggressive federal measures to curtail unlawful immigration.


This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Prison inmates manufacturing razor wire used at the Texas border


https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-pri...064904988.html

Put up chain link fencing with the concertina wire.

TWO ROWS!

If we can put this up at our prisons, we can put it up on our border!


They get injured, hand them over to Mexican EMTs to take care of them!