ACLU of Texas Comment on Border Patrol Cancelling "Crowd Control" Exercise Amid Complaints

EL PASO — The El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol today issued a statement cancelling a planned “crowd control’ exercise scheduled this morning in El Paso. The news came after several complaints were made by the ACLU of Texas, ACLU Border Rights’ Center, congresspeople, and community members.

Terri Burke, executive director for the ACLU of Texas, had the following reaction:

“Border Patrol has now announced they will be postponing their ‘crowd control’ exercise scheduled on Election Day in El Paso. It shouldn’t have taken outrage by us, congresspeople and the community for Border Patrol to know this would cause serious problems on Election Day. These suspicious exercises scheduled in a Latinx neighborhood raise serious concerns about whether this was intended to intimidate Texans from exercising their right to vote.”