Four members of the unit working on Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission have been punished after whistleblowers reported the surveillance operation violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
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An investigation by Military Times and The Texas Tribune has found that Texas National Guard leaders disbanded Operation Lone Star’s intelligence wing after whistleblowers reported the WhatsApp surveillance, which targeted migrant groups to track them through Mexico, because they believed it violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
The Texas Military Department’s inspector general, with assistance from the National Guard Bureau, investigated “potential questionable intelligence activities,” the agency confirmed in response to questions for this story. The agency said in a statement that the watchdog concluded its investigation in September 2022 but has not yet shared its final report, adding that it will “finalize” discipline once leaders receive it.
In his sworn statement — included in his own June complaint with the inspector general alleging the state failed to set clear guidelines for intelligence activity at the border — Rios said Boates “ordered me to oversee” Pierre’s WhatsApp operation while simultaneously blocking Rios from stopping it. He filed the complaint because the investigation blocked his promotion to lieutenant colonel, he said.
For this story, Military Times and the Tribune obtained more than 750 pages of internal Texas Guard records, spoke with intelligence oversight experts, and interviewed three verified Texas National Guard service members who had direct knowledge of the events. They requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from state officials and have not been accused of wrongdoing.
“All the Generals wanted to know about the next mass migration,” Tyler said through his attorney in an email when asked if he was ever pressured to violate intel rules. State-level intelligence oversight officials wanted to coordinate closely with the National Guard Bureau to ensure compliance. But as transgressions piled up, one state intelligence official, Chief Warrant Officer 4 X’Lenske Sampson, emailed border intelligence officers and warned of “the potential fallout if the media [were] to find out or assume the Texas National Guard is conducting Intelligence Operations on the border.
The former watchdog added that if commanders override concerns from intelligence oversight officials — as two implicated officers claim Boates and Ulis did — they should bear responsibility for any violations. Haitian migrants gather along the banks of the Rio Grande as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter flies overhead in Del Rio on Thursday, September 16, 2021.Pierre was born in Haiti in 1978, according to a 2017. The native Haitian Creole speaker learned English and translated for U.S. and United Nations personnel before immigrating to Florida. He enlisted in the Army in 2006, and eventually became a Texas National Guard intelligence officer.
An official from Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of Border Patrol, denied that its agents requested Pierre — or any Texas Guards member — for translation services during the Del Rio crisis. The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to emailed questions. In the days following Sugars’ email, he and border mission officials feverishly worked to update their “guidance” for intelligence personnel on the border. But the two sides struggled to settle on a rulebook, and a final version was not completed for about 10 weeks. As they debated, the WhatsApp operation continued.
Texas National Guard soldiers take positions along the Rio Grande to help patrol the border between the U.S. and Mexico in El Paso on December 20, 2022.In his June 2023 sworn statement and his contemporaneous emails, Rios insisted he used the WhatsApp-linked computer to monitor Pierre for potential wrongdoing. He reiterated this argument in interviews, and he also emphasized Boates’ alleged role directing the operation.
In a subsequent email, Sugars also said “all actions” Pierre had taken using WhatsApp violated National Guard restrictions banning intelligence work while on state active duty. He claimed Texas Military Department attorneys agreed the actions “are violations of [state active duty] status.”
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