The largest share of Operation Lone Star arrests were of people accused only of trespassing on private property. Many spend months in prison, but the strategy does not appear to have slowed immigration.
Department of Public Safety
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TribCast
TribCast: Layers of scandal in the Texas foster care system
In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Reese and Mitchell about the fallout from sexual abuse allegations at a state-contracted children’s shelter and Russian threats against Texas’ energy infrastructure.
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Foster Care in Texas
Child welfare monitors say there’s “ample evidence” kids were abused at Bastrop foster care facility, disputing Texas Rangers
Watchdogs appointed by a federal court found there is evidence of abuse and exploitation after reviewing thousands of documents and recordings.
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Criminal Justice
Texas sheriff under investigation for routinely seizing cash from undocumented immigrants
Search warrants show that Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson is under scrutiny by state investigators, accused of illegally confiscating cash and a pickup truck from immigrants stopped by his deputies.
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Criminal Justice
Texas prosecutor drops charges after migrants claim they were marched to private property, then arrested for trespassing
The Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol insist the 11 men, arrested under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative, weren’t set up for trespassing charges. But a county attorney decided the case was too muddled to prosecute.
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Criminal Justice
Texas court orders release of more than 200 migrants imprisoned in Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security clampdown
The men were arrested by state troopers and held for weeks without facing formal charges, a violation of state law. It’s the latest misfire in Abbott’s hastily assembled effort to involve Texas in patrolling the border.
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Operation Lone Star
Migrants arrested by Texas in border crackdown are being imprisoned for weeks without legal help or formal charges
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.
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Criminal Justice
After a Texas prosecutor dismissed dozens of migrant trespassing cases, some men were dropped at a border bus station
Officials said immigration authorities weren’t interested in taking migrants who had no criminal conviction into federal custody. But without documentation, at least one newly released migrant soon found himself back in detention.
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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.
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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.
