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Operation Lone Star

An 18-year-old Venezuelan was among the first set free from Texas’ new jail for migrants. No one knew what to do with him.

After more than three weeks in jail, a trespassing charge against the man was dropped because state troopers shouldn’t have arrested him under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push. He wound up in bureaucratic limbo for days as federal agencies passed the responsibility for resolving his immigration status.

A Texas Department of Public Safety vehicle is stationed near the U.S. and Mexico border in Del Rio on July 22, 2021.

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