Following the lead of the Texas National Guard, the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office is buying pepper ball and tear gas launcher rifles to potentially use against migrants to prevent them from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
At a county commissioner’s meeting on Monday, Kinney commissioners approved the sheriff’s request to buy four “less lethal” rifles using state grant money provided by the Legislature in 2023.
Sheriff Brad Coe said his deputies will carry the weapons “in the event that something happens like what happened in El Paso,” apparently referring to a confrontation at the El Paso border in March where a couple hundred migrants tore down a chain link fence, pushed past National Guard soldiers, and rushed into Texas.
