Texas authorities continue to clash with the federal government at the border. The White House is giving Texas until the end of today to open access.
Last week, Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas National Guard launched ‘Operation Lone Star’ to stop the flow of illegal migrants into the US.
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border. 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,” said Abbott’s office.
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The Texas Army National Guard constructed a portable command post in Shelby Park, on the border of Eagle Pass, TX, and Mexico, on Jan. 14, 2024.
The public park has consistently been a hot spot for illegal immigration into Texas from across the river, but the National Guard has now reinforced the area with concertina wire and anti-climb barriers, and their presence has dramatically decreased the activity of human smugglers, drug traffickers, and other criminal trespassers.
This increase in security at this location is furthering the goal of Operation Lone Star to disrupt illegal immigration into the state of Texas.
But the situation escalated when Texas Governor Greg Abbott took measures to block federal law enforcement, particularly the US Border Patrol, from accessing a portion of the border.
The Biden administration subsequently asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that Texas was overstepping its authority, sparking a legal battle the high court hadn’t seen since 2012.
Read: Texas Refuses To Vacate Border Area, Puts Up More Wire In Defiance Of SCOTUS
A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire installed by Texas on the US-Mexico border. A lawsuit over the wire is still pending.
By a 5-4 vote, the justices granted the Biden administration’s emergency appeal, which has been in an escalating standoff at the border with Texas and had objected to an appellate ruling in favor of the state.
But thus far, Texas has not backed down.
In the cease and desist letter, DHS general counsel Jonathan Meyer stated that Texas had until Wednesday to end its blockade or the case would be referred to the Department of Justice for “appropriate action.”
On Wednesday, Gov. Abbott posted to X, “Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by Biden’s open border policies. We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.”
“The State of Texas, under Gov. @GregAbbott_TX’s Operation Lone Star, will maintain its current posture in deterring illegal border crossings by utilizing effective border security measures – reinforced concertina wire & anti-climb barriers along the Rio Grande,” Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Lt. Chris Olivarez said in a statement on Twitter Monday.
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Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to over 496,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 38,500 criminal arrests, with more than 34,900 felony charges. In the fight against the fentanyl crisis, Texas law enforcement has seized over 453 million lethal doses of fentanyl during this border mission.
Texas has also bused:
- Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022
- Over 37,400 migrants to New York City since August 2022
- Over 31,100 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
- Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
- Over 15,900 migrants to Denver since May 18
- Over 1,500 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14
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