Conflicting legislation causes confusion at the border

A mother and child will not be sent back to Mexico, at least not by the state of Texas.

On Tuesday, exclusively on WINK News, Anchor Claire Galt showed you a woman and her little girl crossing the Rio Grande, cold and shivering, and moments after they crossed the river, they were taken into custody.

• RELATED: Floridians help in the wake of the border crisis

Since Claire’s story aired, a federal appeals court has blocked Texas from charging migrants with a state crime and having judges order them across the border.

Pass the locked gates of Shelby Park and make a left. There sits a Florida Department of Emergency Management trailer.

Inside it is command sergeant Major Craig Cambell with the Florida State Guard.

Galt met Campbell Wednesday morning, hours after the federal court ruling, stopping Texas from arresting migrants and charging them with a state crime and judges from sending them back to Mexico.

When we asked Cambell if the ruling changes anything for the Florida State Guard, he said, “That’s something going on in Texas, and I am from Florida.”

The state guard is a group of trained volunteers ordered by Governor Ron DeSantis to help assist Texas in securing the border.

Cambell said they do everything from flying drones to keeping an eye on surveillance cameras to offering medical attention to migrants who made it across.

When Galt came to Shelby Park Monday and met with FWC and FHP, she got a better look at the work they’re doing.

She saw the razor wire lining the Rio Grande, the clothes of migrants hanging from the metal, soldiers standing on mounds with guns, and a little girl and her mother, Mayaia and Alicia, who came from Honduras and tried to cross.

Texas National Guard soldiers told them to turn around. They did not. That’s the one time they made Galt leave because moments later, FHP said local authorities took the mother into custody and the girl to the Department of Family Services.

“We take for granted, of course, what we have in this country because when you see the faces come across it. It’s the kids. That is when it’s really rough,” Lt. Roberts said.

Lt. Dennis Roberts with the Florida Highway Patrol sees moms and daughters like Maiya all the time.

Oftentimes, his job is to help them if they get hurt.

Sometimes, the waist-deep walk in water means people drown.

That’s when Lt. Stuart Spoede stepped in.

“I have been involved in several rescues of people that wouldn’t be alive today unless we were here to pull them out of the water and do CPR and resuscitate them. I know for a fact we have saved lives here,” Spoese said.