Border security efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Texas National Guard have led to more than 516,300 illegal alien apprehensions, more than 45,300 criminal arrests, and more than 39,400 felony charges the governor’s office announced.
Through Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement has also seized over 505 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States and Mexico.
“I launched Texas’ historic border mission, #OperationLoneStar, to respond to this crisis. Texas will use every strategy and tool available to secure the border,” Abbott said on X.
“While the Biden Administration has turned a blind eye to the border crisis, Texas continues to step up,” he added.
Since beginning the busing program in 2022, Texas has transported more than 119,400 illegal aliens to cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
To address the recent flow of illegal crossings reportedly surging in Maverick County, Abbott said on Sunday that new sections of the border wall were under construction.
In early June, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez stated on X that 38 single adults from areas including Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic crossed into Maverick County illegally.
Within 24 hours, troopers in Maverick County also encountered 31 unaccompanied children.
Recent border security measures include Texas National Guard soldiers patrolling the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass to repel illegal crossings along the river and replacing and installing new razor wire in El Paso.
Since the launch of Operation Lone Star in 2021, Abbott’s multi-agency endeavor has worked to prevent drug and weapons smuggling, human trafficking, and criminal activity between Texas ports of entry.
Although Operation Lone Star is Texas’s main border security effort, Texas Scorecard reported that some public policy analysts see the program as “insufficient” and note several challenges that hinder its effectiveness.
As of June, Texas only had 317 state guard members currently deployed to the border. While Texas does have access to National Guard and Reserve forces, those remain under dual command with the federal government and are trained for overseas combat operations, rather than homeland defense. The guard also has other pay and benefit issues the legislature has yet to address.
