EL PASO – President-elect Trump and his running mate’s claims during their campaign that Haitian migrants were eating the cats and dogs of neighbors in Ohio grabbed headlines but were proven false. There is another story quietly unfolding on the border involving migrant families who say their dogs have been taken by members of the Texas National Guard.
A family from Turkey seeking asylum said they’re still trying to get their Chihuahua Alice back.
“We have been thinking about her and in pain almost every day,” said A.K who asked that only her initials be used because the family is seeking asylum.
She said when they arrived in El Paso on January 24th, a female national guard member offered to take care of their dog Alice while the family went through immigration processing.
Nearly a year later they’re still searching for their Chihuahua and answers. The family reached out to Ruby Montana with Bridge Pup Rescue when they learned about her work reuniting pets with their families. Montana founded the organization to help stray dogs on the border but also finds foster homes for pets arriving with migrant families while they go through immigration processing.
Over the years, Montana said, her organization has created an informal protocol with the Border Patrol. When agents take people arriving with family pets into custody, Montana often gets the call, “so I can pick up the pets get them into foster care until we can reunite these pets with their families all over the nation really.”
This year she began hearing from migrant families who encountered members of the Texas National Guard deployed to the border for Operation Lone Star, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement initiative. “
“I don’t understand why there’s no set protocol with the Texas Army National Guard,” Montana said.
The Texas Military Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment about allegations members of the Texas National Guard took dogs from migrants or whether there is any protocol for handling pets at the border.
Montana says the Turkish family’s effort to get their Chihuahua Alice back since late January has been a “nightmare.”
“When they were processed and released in 13 days, not even two weeks, they reached out to this specialist. I’ll only share her first name Amy and Amy told them that Alice had died, and Alice had died of ‘depression’”.
The family says they found that hard to believe since their dog was healthy and they got the name of the veterinary clinic where the Texas Army National Guard member said she took Alice.
“Of course, the family called, asked for some proof of what happened. And there was no record of this specialist ever having taken in Alice,” Montana said.
The guard member later said she gave the Chihuahua away and cut off contact with Alice’s family Montana said.
Montana was able to help a Venezuelan family recover their small, fluffy dog named Jay in April. The family told her a Texas National Guardsman offered to care for their dog as they were taken into custody. As soon as the family was released to await immigration proceedings, they contacted the man.
“He had no idea where the dog was, that it wasn’t in his hands, and he couldn’t help them,” Montana said. “I also reached out and got the same dismissive response. He wasn’t able to tell me anything about the dog’s whereabouts.”
It wasn’t until she contacted the guardsman’s supervisor that Jay was released and reunited with his family she said.
Montana is concerned there may be more dogs in that situation. “I have no way of knowing how many pets of immigrants have been taken, stolen, not given back.”
She’s advocating for an official policy at the border to ensure pets that arrive with migrants are tracked, cared for and returned to their families as soon as possible.
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