18 April 2024, New Mexico, Steven Zimmerman—I want to share with you a rule at the Jerusalem Press. When someone comes forward with information that impacts law enforcement, we need at least three independent verifications of the allegations. Since 14 April, we’ve received a harrowing report concerning the National Guard on the border with Mexico.

I’ll start this article with this: The Republican party, the party that likes to scream we are being invaded and that the Democrats have done nothing to secure the border, failed to act in 2017.

The Republican Party retained its majority in the House and the Senate with Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017. Why didn’t they, the Republicans, enact stronger immigration laws? Or change the law on asylum that says those seeking asylum must be in the United States, legally or illegally, and have a year upon entry to the US to claim asylum?

The answer is simple. What is happening along the Southern US border is a great fundraiser for both parties.

There is currently an investigation in El Paso that focuses on a member of the National Guard assigned to Operation Lone Star discharging his firearm.  

“I want to make sure someone is getting this,” said an India Guard member in an email to our secure email. “I work with [name redacted] fired towards people on the Mexican side of the border. I don’t care what the higher-up says about spinning it; it was wrong.”

There is independent verification that an investigation is ongoing. From what we know, via official sources, early in the afternoon of 14 April, a member of the Indiana National Guard fired his weapon in what officials are calling a “border-related” incident. This information comes from the Texas Military Department. It was later reported in the Army Times.

“The incident is under investigation. More information will be made available as the investigation progresses.”

Another member of the Indian National Guard spoke with us this afternoon. During that call, he indicated that the National Guard should not be on the border without some national emergency declaration.

“The role of the National Guard, according to official releases made by the Joint Cheifs of Staff, is one of support, and that is the fiction the DoD and JCS are pandering a truth,” said a ranking member of the National Guard under the condition of anonymity. “We are not here in a support capacity at all. We are actively stopping and detaining civilians on the ground, and that is a violation of the Constitution.”

Operation Lone Star is a border security mission created by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021. It is run by the Texas Military Department and Texas Department of Public Safety and uses Texas Army National Guard soldiers. Fourteen states with Republican governors have committed their Guard troops to support the operation in Texas, along the border with Mexico.

NewsNation reported the incident this past Monday after obtaining a U.S. Border Patrol bulletin.

The bulletin, shown during the NewsNation video report, notes that at about 1:10 p.m. on April 14, a Border Patrol agent was notified by Army personnel that “a migrant was seen stabbing another migrant on the Mexico side of the U.S. border wall in the El Paso Sector near the Ysleta Station.

“The subject who was shot fled back into Mexico,” according to the bulletin.

Read that again; the subject who was shot fled back into Mexico. The National Guard, absent an emergency order issued by the President of the United States, cannot engage civilians.

“This is a clear violation of the Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878,” said a member of the National Guard on the US/Mexico Border.

The Posse Comitatus Act removed the military from civil law enforcement due to the abuses from the use of the army as law enforcement during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The Texas Department of Public Safety secured the crime scene, and another two wounded individuals were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

“I live right here, you see from my window the fence,” says Rita Escobar who lives in the Kidneys, a housing project on Zaragoza near the border. “Why is the army here for this? We are not in any kind of war. What if they shoot, and the bullet makes it to my house and kills one of my children?”

Ms. Escobar is right. What if an American is killed? It wouldn’t be the first time that has happened.

In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexico border as part of the War on Drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández Jr. Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18-year-old was a U.S. citizen tending his family’s goats with a . 22 rifle.

We are now repeating history because Gov Abbot does not seem to know history. Will an American have to be killed by the Indiana National Guard before someone realizes there is another way to secure the border?

I’ll say it again, the Republican party, the party that likes to scream we are being invaded and that the Democrats have done nothing to secure the border, failed to act in 2017.

The Republican Party retained its majority in the House and the Senate with Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017. Why didn’t they, the Republicans, enact stronger immigration laws? Or change the law on asylum that says those seeking asylum must be in the United States, legally or illegally, and have a year upon entry to the US to claim asylum?

The answer is simple. What is happening along the Southern US border is a great fundraiser for both parties.

As for the shooting by the National Guard, “The Indiana National Guard is aware of the incident that happened Sunday, April 14,” Indiana National Guard officials told Army Times in an email. “We support and care for our soldiers and airmen supporting Operation Lone Star.”

Indiana Guard officials deferred any further comment about the incident to the Texas Military Department.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced the deployment of 50 Indiana National Guard soldiers to support Operation Lone Star in February. Indiana Guard officials confirmed that their 10-month mission began earlier this month.