In Washington, D.C., some lawmakers from Texas attempted to cut off any potential federal taxpayer money from funding Operation Lone Star.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) sought to amend the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act by including language that would explicitly preclude such funding.
While all Texas Democrats in the House joined Castro in voting for the amendment, Texas Republicans countered in defense of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative. The amendment was ultimately defeated 211-220.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), a former Austin city council member, voted in support of the amendment, claiming, “We must stop the dangerous, expensive, corrupt, and ineffective political stunts at the border and instead chart a new path for a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
“Abbott’s Operation Lone Star must end, and I urge passage … to ensure federal funding does not go to this failed program,” he continued. “Every day, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott violates the rights of asylum seekers and violates the rights of our border communities, all to score political points against President Biden.”
“We have seen these inhumane policies in action that have taken the lives of children at the border, and we have lost National Guardsmen to death,” Casar alleged.
In response, Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) claimed that while Democrats represented “chaos” and “lawlessness” at the border, Republicans supported “law and order.”
“Joe Biden has abdicated his responsibility,” he continued, slamming Casar and other Democrats for having “the gall to say that the governor of Texas doesn’t have the right to protect us when the federal government has completely abdicated.”
“Texas is the only government that is doing anything about this, and yet the gall to say that we don’t have the right to defend ourselves when a Venezuelan flag is placed onto the shore of Texas property?” Pfluger added. “In any other time period in history that would be a declaration of war.”
“Since Joe Biden has been president, this chaos has gotten worse and worse,” he claimed. “Enough is enough.”
At that point in the debate, Castro stood up and said, “Cruelty, incompetence — these are what define Operation Lone Star,” adding that Republicans “try to use these brown skin immigrants to scare everybody — that’s what this is about.”
Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his seat in the Senate, also voted to stop federal taxpayer money from going to Operation Lone Star.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee slammed Allred for voting against the border security program, saying, “Texas’s southern border is being overwhelmed by an historic influx of migrants but Colin Allred refuses to break with DC Democrats to give Texas the funding it needs to secure the border,” per Breitbart News.
“If Allred were smart, he’d drop out now and run again for his safe Democrat seat in the House,” spokesman Philip Letsou added.
The only Republican who voted for the amendment was Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), while the only Democrats voting against it were Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Perez (D-WA).
Gov. Abbott has staunchly defended Operation Lone Star as vital to securing the border amid historic levels of unlawful migration.
“We have a President who is an obstructionist to Texas, which is trying to do our best to impede the flow of illegal immigrants by us building our own border wall, by us putting up these razor wire barriers and not allowing people to pass, by deploying the National Guard to make sure we repel migrants who are trying to get into the country,” Abbott recently explained.
“And what do we have? We have Joe Biden interfering with my efforts to secure the border,” he continued. “I’ve never seen a President flout the laws of the United States as much as Joe Biden, and I’ve never seen someone like that obstruct a Governor who is actually trying to limit illegal immigration into our country.”