Operation Lone Star

Operation Lone Star (OLS) is a joint operation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department along the United States–Mexico border in southern Texas. The operation started in 2021 and is ongoing. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the operation is intended to counter a rise in illegal immigration, the illegal drug trade, and human smuggling. Between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021, migrant apprehensions had risen 278% along the US–Mexico border. According to the governor's office, OLS has resulted in 513,700 migrant apprehensions, 44,000 criminal arrests (including 38,600 felony charges), and 489 million doses of fentanyl seized. As of April 2022, OLS was spending approximately $2.5 million per week and was expected to cost approximately $2 billion per year. Approximately 10,000 National Guard members were deployed in support of OLS at the height of the operation, with around 6,000 deployed as of November 2022. One year after the start of Operation Lone Star, Texas saw a 9% increase in migrant encounters along its border with Mexico, compared to a 62% increase in Arizona, California, and New Mexico along their respective borders with Mexico. As of June 2024, the Department of Public Safety has estimated a 74% drop in illegal border crossings since the start of OLS.

OLS has drawn criticism from the federal government, state officials, and migrant advocates for its treatment of migrants, including the withholding of water and orders to push migrants back into the Rio Grande. Migrants have had a more difficult time crossing areas of the Rio Grande due to razor wire set up by OLS, leading to some migrants becoming injured and/or captured in the wire. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized high speed pursuits in counties implementing OLS, which it attributed to causing 74 deaths. Texas officials and national guard members have also voiced concerns about hardships sustained during deployment in support of OLS.

According to the governor, 119,200 migrants were voluntarily bused to sanctuary cities across the United States as of June 2024. A few migrants were also flown directly to these cities. This has resulted in migrant crises in cities like New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as local resources are stretched thin to handle the new arrivals. Local officials in the sanctuary cities have criticized the busing program and responded by requesting federal assistance, fining charter bus companies carrying migrants, and sending migrants to other cities.

In January 2024, Texas officials seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which was frequently used by United States Border Patrol to process new migrant arrivals. Border patrol agents were generally prohibited from the park, except to access a boat ramp in the park after three migrants drowned nearby while crossing the Rio Grande. This led to a standoff between federal and state officials. The Biden administration has said that it would refer the dispute to the United States Department of Justice if access was not restored for border patrol agents.

Background and causes
Starting with "Operation Linebacker" by former governor Rick Perry, the State of Texas has been launching border security operations with increasing escalation since 2005. These operations were limited in scope due to the exclusive authority of federal immigration agents to deport migrants. Operation Lone Star was launched in 2021 to respond to the surge in border crossings, which Governor Abbott attributed to the Biden Administration's policies on immigration. In fiscal year 2021, enforcement actions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including detentions and arrests of migrants, rose to over 1.9 million, a 202% increase from fiscal year 2020. Meanwhile, a 278% increase in migrant encounters was seen at the southwest border from fiscal year 2020 to 2021, which continued rising into 2022.

Operation Lone Star differed from previous border operations due to the authority granted to state law enforcement officials to arrest migrants in border counties for offenses such as criminal trespassing and human smuggling. OLS efforts to empower local law enforcement to act against undocumented migrants have been complicated by the traditional delegation of immigration enforcement powers to federal officials. In Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court overturned an Arizona law penalizing illegal immigration at a state level.

Public
As of June 2023, polling from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin indicated that 59% of Texans backed the increased law enforcement deployments and border spending.

The mission faced public criticism, including from state officials, following reports of pay delays, poor working and living conditions, a lack of proper equipment and facilities, and multiple suicides and suicide attempts among service members. According to reporting in the Army Times, soldiers were being housed in what it describes as cramped quarters, in converted recreational vehicles and semi-truck trailers, and also faced shortages in cold weather uniforms, medical equipment, and portable toilets. According to the Houston Chronicle, this was further compounded when it coincided with state cuts in educational benefits for service members to address budget shortfalls, reducing available tuition assistance by more than half. Some Texas Air National Guard members deployed in support of OLS have also criticized the operation's planning and execution, with nearly 30% of 250 participants in a 2022 Air National Guard survey reporting frustration with the operation's length, haste, and involuntary nature.

On January 13, 2022, a state district court judge in Travis County, Texas, granted Jesús Alberto Guzmán Curipoma, of Ecuador, a writ of habeas corpus, ruling that the state program violated the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution. On February 25, 2022, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin affirmed the decision of the lower court. On June 26, 2024, the Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the Third Court of Appeals decision and remanded the case for reconsideration.

Republican Party officials in multiple states and in federal positions supported Texas' efforts and criticized opposition from the Biden administration.

More than 100 sheriffs in Texas have publicly backed OLS.

Federal government
In July 2022, the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation of OLS. According to a Texas Department of Public Safety email obtained by the Texas Tribune, the investigation is focused on reviewing whether OLS violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin by programs that receive federal funds.

On July 24, 2023, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Texas, United States v. Abbott, alleging that the construction of floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass by OLS without permission violated the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said that the barriers pose a hazard to navigation and public safety, present humanitarian concerns, and have sparked diplomatic protests by Mexico. In response, Texas argued that the area of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass does not fall under the Act and that the floating barriers are not a "structure" subject to the Act's requirements. Texas also argued that the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which allows states to engage in war if invaded, allows Texas to build the barriers due to Governor Abbott's invasion declaration. On September 6, the district court granted the DOJ's motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered Texas to move the barrier to the bank of the river and cease the installation of any new barriers. In response, Texas appealed the order to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which issued an order on December 1 affirming the injunction. The court also found that Texas has not offered concrete evidence that the barrier has saved lives or reduced illegal migration. The outcome of the case is pending an en banc rehearing in the Fifth Circuit.

Federal border patrol agents have cut and destroyed razor wire deployed by Texas as part of Operation Lone Star, but were halted from doing so except to provide emergency medical aid by a temporary injunction issued by a judge in the Western District of Texas on October 30, 2023. On November 30, the court withdrew the injunction, allowing the Border Patrol to resume cutting the wire pending a trial in the case. The Fifth Circuit reinstated the temporary injunction on cutting razor wire in December 2023. In January 2024, the Supreme Court restored the ability of border patrol agents to cut razor wire pending the outcome of the case. Texas continued putting up concertina wire and blocking border patrol agents after the ruling, which only dealt with the temporary injunction against border patrol agents cutting razor wire. The case is ongoing and is scheduled to be argued before the Fifth Circuit on February 7, 2024.

Since 2022, Abbott has repeatedly invoked the "invasion clauses" of the Constitution to legally justify his efforts on immigration enforcement, which typically falls under federal purview. Abbott has accused the Biden administration of failing to protect Texas against an "invasion" under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, thus empowering the state to act under Article I, Section 10, Clause 3. Texas has also unsuccessfully attempted to use this argument in federal court.

On January 3, 2024, the Biden administration filed United States v. Texas, a lawsuit challenging SB 4, which empowered Texas law enforcement to arrest migrants and effectively deport them for crossing the border illegally. The Biden administration argued that Texas was interfering with the federal government's "exclusive authority" on immigration. The United States Supreme Court issued a stay temporarily blocking SB 4 from going into effect on March 4, 2024. The Supreme Court rejected a later request for a stay and allowed the law to go into effect pending ongoing litigation on March 19.

On January 5 2024, Governor Greg Abbott made controversial comments about doing everything to stop illegal border crossings short of "shooting people who come across the border, because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder", which lead to condemnations from Democratic party members and Mexico.

Eagle Pass park standoff
On January 11, 2024, the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass after authorization from Abbott via an emergency declaration. Texas National Guard, Texas State Troopers, and Florida State Troopers enforced a general ban on entry into the park, although Border Patrol agents were given access to a boat ramp in the park after three migrants drowned nearby while attempting to cross the Rio Grande river. The Biden administration demanded restoration of access to the park for border patrol agents, and said that it would refer the issue to the Department of Justice if access was not restored. Access to the park has been curtailed by the use of razor wire. Although a Supreme Court ruling on January 22 vacated a temporary injunction blocking federal removal of razor wire, it did not explicitly forbid Texas officials from laying down more razor wire or grant federal officials access to the park to remove razor wire. An 80 acre Texas National Guard base at Eagle Pass was opened in May 2024.

The circumstances behind the drowning of the three migrants during the standoff has been a matter of dispute between federal and Texas officials. According to Border Patrol, a border patrol agent responded to a Mexican distress call about the drowning migrants near Shelby Park, but was blocked from accessing the park by National Guard members, who affirmed that federal officials were blocked "even in emergency circumstances". Texas officials say that by the time that border patrol was on site in response to the drowning migrants, the migrants had already died.

Eagle Pass mayor Rolando Salinas coordinated with the Texas Department of Public Safety in declaring the park as private property without the approval of the city council. As a consequence, migrants entering the park could be arrested on charges of criminal trespass into private property. Salinas and the Eagle Pass city council voted to rescind the declaration, but chose not to take legal action against the state due to a lack of funding for litigation.

During the standoff, migrant crossings fell sharply across the Texas border, including in Eagle Pass, shifting in concentration to Arizona and California. Abbott took credit for the decline in Texas, particularly in Eagle Pass, stating that average daily crossings there had dropped from several thousand to just 3 due to state policies.

Other states
On May 16, 2023, Abbott requested assistance from other state governors through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. As of June 2023, 14 states have sent about 500 national guard and law enforcement officers to Texas in response, with Florida providing the most additional personnel.

Results
As of June 2024, OLS has resulted in 513,700 migrant apprehensions, 44,000 criminal arrests (including 38,600 felony charges), and 489 million doses of fentanyl seized according to the governor's office.

However, a March 2022 investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and The Marshall Project found that the Texas Department of Public Safety had counted over 2,000 arrests with no link to OLS or border security towards OLS's total. While those arrests were later removed following questioning from reporters, the report also found that DPS continues to include arrests in its OLS database with no clear link to the operation's stated goals.

High speed chases have risen in Texas, particularly in counties where OLS is being undertaken. The chases have been linked to pursuits of drivers, often US citizens, who are paid to smuggle migrants away from border counties. Human Rights Watch found that more than two-thirds of police chases in Texas occurred in OLS counties, which contained 13% of the state population. According to HRW, 74 people have died and 189 were injured as a result of these chases, resulting in a vehicle pursuit death rate eight times as high as the national rate. It also found an average of $177,000 in property damage per month linked to these chases, up from $73,000 per month prior to OLS.

The costs of the operation have resulted in funding being transferred from other Texas government agency budgets, particularly the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which operates state prisons. Reimbursement for the costs have partly been filled by using federal COVID aid.

After the start of OLS, Texas saw slower rates of increases in migrant encounters than neighboring states since the start of OLS. One year after inception, Texas saw a 9% increase in encounters, compared to a 62% increase in encounters in Arizona, California, and New Mexico, the three other states bordering Mexico. In June 2024, the Department of Public Safety reported that Texas experienced a 74% decrease in illegal border crossings since the start of OLS.

Bussing program
As part of Operation Lone Star, Texas set up a program to voluntarily send migrants to sanctuary cities in other states, typically through busing. Abbott has stated that the purpose of the migrant busing program was to provide Texan border towns with relief from migrant arrivals, which he blames on the Biden administration's policies on immigration, and to bring the costs of the border crisis to Democratic cities that had been dismissing it. Abbott has also mocked leaders of cities he sent migrants to for saying that they welcome immigrants. The buses provide free rides and food for migrants, many of whom have expressed gratitude at being able to ride closer to their preferred destinations. However, some migrant advocates reported instances of buses being sent without adequate provisions. The state reported sending 119,200 migrants to cities outside of Texas, contributing to the New York City migrant housing crisis and other crises in cities such as Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. Officials in these cities have responded to the drop-off of migrants by deploying emergency measures and calling states of emergencies. Some Democratic-led cities, such as Denver and New York City, have also responded by giving migrants free bus and plane rides to other cities.

To carry out the busing program, charter bus companies transport the migrants at a cost of about $1,650 per migrant, with funding coming from both the Texas legislature and private donors. A few hundred migrants have also been flown from Texas to sanctuary cities. Local officials in the sanctuary cities have attempted to crack down on the busing programs via fines and ordinances targeting the charter bus companies. New York City in particular has filed a lawsuit against 17 charter bus companies responsible for migrant transportation.

Officials in areas dealing with migrant surges have called on the Biden administration to change immigration policies. They have also requested federal aid to fund their responses to the migrant influx and reimburse costs. Washington, D.C., in particular has requested the deployment of the D.C. National Guard to assist in the migrant crisis, but has been turned down.

Republican officials have expressed approval of the OLS busing program for giving the migrant crisis national attention. Democratic officials' reactions have changed as migrant influxes grew over time. In 2022, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it was "nice the State of Texas is helping [migrants] get to their final destination", while in 2023, the White House and other Democrats called the busing program a "political stunt". Other states and cities, both Democratic and Republican, as well as local charities, have followed Texas in organizing busing operations to move migrants to the rest of the country.