Rene Cervantes, the former chief of police in the Texas border town of Rio Bravo, has filed a shocking lawsuit against his community, alleging that a city official ordered him to shoot the children of undocumented immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.

In a petition filed recently in a local district court, Cervantes claimed that city administrator Miguel Berry told him to “shoot children of illegal immigrants [he] and his officers might arrest,” the Laredo Morning Times reported.

Why did Berry allegedly demand the murder of undocumented immigrant children? “So,” Cervantes said in his suit, “it would be easier to send the parents back to Mexico.”

The horrifying allegation comes as part of a broader fight between Cervantes and the city of Rio Bravo over the police chief’s contract. According to the lawsuit, Cervantes claims his contract guaranteed that his supervisor would be Rio Bravo mayor, Dr. Francisco Peña, and not Berry, whose horrific orders violated the chief’s agreement with the city.

Speaking with KGNS, a lawyer for Cervantes insisted his client had attempted several times to settle the matter out of court, before filing his suit for $200,000 in damages. The suit also alleges Berry engaged in a number of other violations, including demanding investigation information from Cervantes, as well as engaging in a “campaign to humiliate and terrorize Chief Cervantes,” the Morning Times reported.

Cervantes was suspended from his job for two weeks in late June, for allegedly missing a monthly meeting with Mayor Peña. At the time, Cervantes’ attorney Craig Lawrence told KGNS that “some of the actions that the city have taken in the last couple of months, we believe, breach the contact that he has with the city of Rio Bravo.”

“Chief Cervantes wants to stay and keep protecting the citizens of Rio Bravo with [his] officers,” Lawrence added.

According to both KGNS and the Morning Times, both Berry and the city have not yet filed their responses to Cervantes’ lawsuit.