Texas will expand the scope of Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial initiative to "catch and jail" migrants on state criminal trespassing charges to more counties on and near the border with Mexico, state officials confirmed Thursday.
The practice is part of Abbott's Operation Lone Star, an immigration and border security program the governor launched in March 2021, deploying thousands of National Guard troops and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to the Texas-Mexico border.
While initially limited to two counties along the southern border, Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw said his department would expand the practice to other areas of the Rio Grande Valley, including Brooks and Webb counties.
McCraw discussed the decision following a roundtable discussion with Abbott and other state and local leaders Thursday in Weslaco to mark the one-year anniversary of Operation Lone Star.
During the meeting, Abbott touted the operation's drug seizures and migrant apprehensions, saying the effort is needed to curb a sharp increase in illegal immigration, drug trafficking and human smuggling.
“A year ago, Texas faced an unprecedented crisis at our border created by President Biden's open border policies — but Texas immediately stepped up and took decisive action to stem the tide of people, drugs and weapons flooding our state,” Abbott said. ---READ MORE HERE
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| KIRSTEN LUCE, STR / NYT |
Texas state authorities are now arresting migrants on misdemeanor trespass charges near the Rio Grande Valley and are planning to expand Gov. Greg Abbott's 'catch and jail' initiative into counties that are not on the border, the state's chief law enforcement official said Tuesday.
Under his Operation Lone Star program, Abbott has sent thousands of Texas National Guard troops and state police to the U.S.- Mexico border, where they are tasked with apprehending and referring migrants to federal authorities, seizing drugs and, in some cases, arresting migrants for allegedly trespassing on private property.
The trespass arrests, underway since last July, have remained almost entirely confined to Val Verde County, home to the border city of Del Rio, and neighboring Kinney County, a sparsely populated community that has served as the epicenter of the arrests. But in recent weeks, state authorities have started locking up migrants in Jim Hogg County, a rural area that hugs the border counties of Starr and Zapata. In February, they opened a new state-run booking facility for processing migrants who are arrested.
In a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said the effort will soon extend to Webb County, which includes Laredo and some 100 miles of the border, and to inland Brooks County, part of U.S. Border Patrol's heavily trafficked Rio Grande Valley sector.
On Tuesday, a total of 57 migrants arrested in Jim Hogg County were being held at the two state-run lockups outfitted to house Operation Lone Star detainees, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But even with DPS' expansion into South Texas, Kinney County remained the chief source of trespass arrests, accounting for roughly 85 percent of the 870 migrants currently jailed. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Webb County, a Democratic stronghold, is set to welcome Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial migrant arrests
Gov. Abbott is extending border arrest program into three new South Texas counties
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