spoke with more than two dozen Texas National Guardsmen who are deployed on the mission, ranging from junior enlisted to senior officers. They typically earn less and cannot accrue GI Bill benefits or build eligibility for a home loan through the Department of Veterans Affairs.īut the deployment has upended their lives, well beyond pay and benefits. Meanwhile, many of the Guard troops at the border are on state orders with different pay scales than federally activated forces. But it remains unclear why the issues existed in the first place. Rita Holton, a spokesperson for the Texas Guard, told the state is tracking 82 soldiers with pay issues, and said Texas has made strides in addressing the problem. One soldier told that their last paycheck was for about $100, while another soldier was overpaid by more than $2,000.Ĭol. Some have encountered months of delays with Guard pay, with physical paychecks coming in at inconsistent times and in inconsistent amounts. The most common hardship for troops was losing income - sometimes up to tens of thousands of dollars - when leaving civilian jobs. That mobilization of some 10,000 troops forced Guardsmen to slam the brakes on their civilian lives. When Abbott kicked off his campaign to lock down the southern border last year, he rapidly mobilized thousands of Guardsmen in the state, sometimes with only a few days' notice to deploy on what could be a yearlong - or even longer - mission. The National Guard does not offer any subsidies for child care. ![]() Other soldiers whose hardship requests were denied are primary guardians of children or are caregivers to sick family members. "I don't know how we're going to make it work. "I'm going to lose a lot of money, probably at least $15,000, on this deployment," another NCO deployed to the Texas border told, saying their partner had just lost a job. The denials come amid reports of an open-ended Guard mission with nothing much for deployed troops to do, leading to widespread drinking and reported suicides. Greg Abbott's border mission found that the majority - at least 127 - of the applications between October and November were denied. Mexican detention centers, particularly those run by the state, suffer from chronic overcrowding and violence, which has worsened in recent years due to conflict between criminal groups.A review of 150 hardship requests from Texas Guard troops deployed on Gov. In February 2016, as part of his visit to Mexico, Pope Francis officiated mass in the state prison's courtyard with 700 prisoners and their families in attendance. In August 2022, a clash between rival gangs left three prisoners dead.Īccording to a February 2022 report by the State Human Rights Commission, more than 3,700 people are detained in the prison, above its maximum capacity of 3,135. The prison itself has seen multiple breakouts of fighting and riots, including a bloody March 2009 episode that left 20 dead. Clashes regularly erupt among inmate of rival gangs, which in places like Juarez serve as proxies for drug cartels.Ĭiudad Juarez has been the scene of years of violent clashes between security forces and the rival Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, which have left thousands dead over the past decade. Violence is frequent in Mexican prisons, including in some where authorities only maintain nominal control.
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