Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reported a significant decline in illegal border crossings into the state, citing an 85% reduction attributed to the controversial Operation Lone Star initiative. In a statement on the official website of the Texas Governor, details were shared on the combined efforts of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas National Guard who have been working in unison to curb the illegal transit of people, drugs, and weapons into Texas as well as countering transnational criminal activities.
Since its inception, Operation Lone Star has accounted for over half a million apprehensions of illegal immigrants and more than 45,500 criminal arrests, boasting in excess of 39,500 related felony charges, these numbers are used to illustrate a touted success in the face of federal immigration policies deemed insufficient by the state's top officials; During this time, law enforcement has intercepted over 506 million lethal doses of fentanyl, ostensibly preventing a public health catastrophe. Texas has also taken steps to relocate migrants to various cities across the United States, including over 12,500 to Washington, D.C., and notably more than 45,900 to New York City, Governor Abbott has been vocal about the perceived neglect from the federal administration to fortify the border, placing this responsibility squarely back on Texas’s shoulders.
In a recent interview with Fox News, as quoted on the Governor's website, Governor Abbott took a direct jab at Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her "a failure as border czar," and highlighting her limited engagement with the urgent crisis at the Texas border, emphasizing the gravity of the situation that Texas contends with on a daily basis due to what he calls the "open border policies" of President Joe Biden’s administration. He further ascribed the influx of not just illegal immigrants but also “murderers and rapists, but also an all-time record high of terrorists” to the administrative failures, projecting a stark sense of urgency and danger.
The report from the Texas Governor’s website also champions the technological and strategic advancements utilized within Operation Lone Star, such as triple-strand razor wire fortifications in El Paso and the use of drones for surveillance and interdiction operations; these methods have reportedly been instrumental in a number of arrests and drug seizures, including the interception of a significant amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other illegal substances in coordinated drug busts.
Amidst the abundant figures and asserted accomplishments, Texas Border Czar Mike Banks has echoed the Governor’s sentiments, reinforcing the claim of Operation Lone Star’s success in plummeting illegal immigration by 85%. Moreover, DPS has been actively involved in field operations, such as arrests of suspected smugglers in the Rio Grande Valley, and apprehensions for criminal trespass in private properties, exemplifying the continuous efforts at the local level to implement the state-backed Operation Lone Star.
