In his latest weekly update on Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott highlighted the initiative’s accomplishments to date.
Operation Lone Star is a multi-agency effort that includes the Texas Department of Safety and the Texas National Guard. It was launched in 2021 to secure the state’s southern border, stop the smuggling of drugs, humans, and guns into Texas, and stamp out transnational criminal activity between ports of entry.
Just this week, state law enforcement officers apprehended 600 unlawful migrants, bringing the total number of apprehensions since 2021 to 509,500. Officers also made 200 criminal arrests, for a grand total of 42,100. The arrests have led to 37,400 criminal charges, per a press release from the governor’s office.
Texas law enforcement has also seized over 476 million lethal doses of fentanyl through the operation.
The state also continues to bus unlawful migrants to sanctuary cities throughout the United States, transporting more than 1,900 during the most recent reporting week. In total, the program has bused:
- Over 12,500 unlawful migrants to Washington, DC, since April 2022.
- Over 43,400 unlawful migrants to New York City since August 2022.
- Over 35,300 unlawful migrants to Chicago since August 2022.
- Over 3,400 unlawful migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022.
- Over 18,500 unlawful migrants to Denver since May 18, 2023.
- Over 1,500 unlawful migrants to Los Angeles since June 14, 2023.
The operations aim to “fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” according to the press release. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.”
On April 25, the governor posted a video on X purportedly showing the ongoing construction of the Texas border wall in Zapata County.
“Texas won’t back down,” the post read. “We are using every tool available to secure the border in Biden’s absence.”
The governor renewed a previous disaster proclamation regarding border security, according to a press release on April 16.
“The surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas–Mexico border posed an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster for a number of Texas counties and all state agencies affected by this disaster,” the declaration reads.