Defense attorneys have started asking courts to set migrants free because local justice systems, overwhelmed by arrests under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push, are routinely violating state law and constitutional due process rights.
Operation Lone Star
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star to ramp up security along the Texas-Mexico border in March 2021, citing insufficient policies from the federal government. He announced that the state would deploy resources from the Department of Public Safety and the National Guard. The Texas Legislature dedicated nearly $2 billion toward the effort. But the operation has been mired in controversy; National Guard troops have called it a disaster, and migrants arrested on state trespassing charges have gotten caught in confused legal proceedings, their lawyers citing due-process violations. Texas Tribune reporters are covering the border initiative and its effects on the people involved. Help us investigate Operation Lone Star by sharing your experiences living at the border or near it.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
Thanks to local politics and a railroad, rural Kinney County accounts for most of Texas’ migrant arrests
Under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push, Texas state police have arrested hundreds of migrants in the conservative county, usually after spotting them on cargo trains or walking remote ranch lands. Sent to a state prison retooled as an immigration jail, many men were left without lawyers for weeks.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2021
Texas Senate approves spending nearly $2 billion on border security
Proponents of House Bill 9 denounced the Biden administration’s approach to border security, saying the state had no choice but to step in to ramp up enforcement.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2021
Texas House approves additional $2 billion for border security as state moves to build border wall
The bill would nearly triple border security funding from the last biennium. The legislation needs one more vote of approval from the House before moving to the Senate.
Posted in
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.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative rolls out with confusion, missteps and a whole lot of state troopers in Val Verde County
The governor’s decision to go all in on border security is evolving rapidly, and many of those on the ground don’t know how it’s going to work.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
Converted Texas prison gets first immigrant detainees as Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security effort ramps up
Border-crossing immigrants are being arrested by Texas troopers on state charges like trespassing, and they’re starting to trickle into a prison emptied to house them.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
Texas empties prison to prepare to detain immigrants arrested during ramped-up border enforcement
The prison — Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley — will have capacity for about 1,000 people.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
In a period of conflicts and crises, Gov. Greg Abbott goes all in on the border
The governor’s announcement Thursday that Texas would build its own border wall was Abbott’s boldest move yet in an intensifying focus on the region.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
Greg Abbott sends state troopers, National Guard to border after increase in fentanyl seizures
Abbott said the increase in fentanyl seizures correlates with President Joe Biden taking office in January and implementing new border policies.