Looking Back on a Year of
Operation Lone Star Defense September 20, 2021, U.S. immigration policy was thrust into
Criminal charges are not the only distinction between Op-
ingly whipping Haitian noncitizens in Del Rio, Texas went viral.
cies. In the past, noncitizens at the border were detained
scrutiny when photographs of Border Patrol agents seemAt that time, James Wong–a former deputy assistant commissioner for internal affairs at the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, told NPR that he was most troubled by a cultural shift within the organization where agents saw themselves as more a paramilitary force than a law enforcement agen-
cy. Speaking to NPR’s Joel Rose in 2021, Wong stated, “I’ve had Border Patrol agents in the past tell me that they will not
retreat, and they will not give up one foot of American soil. They view these people as the enemy.”
Just months before those images shocked the nation, in
March of 2021, Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation
Lone Star (OLS)–an attempt to curb immigration along the
eration Lone Star and the state’s earlier immigration poliby Border Patrol agents, under OLS, and were arrested by
troopers from the Texas State and National Guards and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Early into the state’s
program, Governor Abbott sent 500 troops from the Texas National Guard to the border. Nearly five times as many Na-
tional Guard troops were dispatched to the border as a part of OLS by September 2021. By November of that same year,
the Texas Tribune estimated that the number of troops at the border had ballooned to 10,000. James Wong’s figurative assessment of Texas’ border policies was literal: Operation
Lone Star has effectively created a military response to noncitizens seeking asylum at the Texas border.
border between Texas and Mexico. Under Governor Abbott’s
This heightened military presence at the Texas border
than being processed under the federal immigration sys-
Texas Tribune, Pro Publica, and the Marshall Project forecast
plan, when a noncitizen is apprehended at the border, rather tem, noncitizens are instead arrested by Texas law enforcement and charged under the state’s criminal codes and, if
unable to afford cash bail, sent to prison where they may
wait weeks to months before their trials. Often, these nonciti-
zens languish in Texas prisons under charges of trespass, a misdemeanor-level offense.
comes with a hefty price tag for taxpayers: estimates by that OLS spends 2.5 million dollars each week. By the end of
2022, Operation Lone Star spent an estimated 4 billion dollars towards a program whose claims to protecting Texas
are dubious: often, the claimed arrests and drug seizures
“success stories” coming from OLS are from criminal cases unrelated to the border.
Many of these noncitizens have not committed a crime and,
The client impact we can confirm is that there is an entirely
right to request asylum. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is an es-
and TRLA’s OLS response has been to intervene and provide
under international conventions and federal law, have the sential partner in assisting noncitizens unfairly caught up in
our state’s criminal state with getting their criminal charges resolved and moving forward with their lawful claims to asylum. By September of 2021, just six months since the initiation
of OLS, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid had already taken on 500 cases of noncitizens arrested under the program. By April of
2022, as OLS rounded its first anniversary, TRLA was respon-
sible for representing over one-tenth of all the noncitizens
separate and unequal criminal justice system for migrants, clients with a strong defense, protecting their due process
rights under the constitution. Our attorneys have successfully defended appointed clients by arguing case dismissals,
pushing back against unconstitutional equal protection and discrimination issues, protecting clients’ rights to defend
themselves and to bond, advocating for language access in court, and so much more.
arrested through the state’s program. Not only is the sudden
The failure of Operation Lone Star highlights the need for a
cause these noncitizens have active criminal and immigra-
ers human rights, due process, and broader social impact.
Making this even more complicated, many migrants are de-
for noncitizens unjustly lost within the state’s criminal justice
nal charges in other countries or resulting in arrest warrants
every individual’s innate worth and potential, regardless of
required in-person proceedings.
nation and those who seek to call it home.
influx of clients a challenge TRLA has risen to meet, but be-
more comprehensive and nuanced approach that consid-
tion court cases under OLS, these cases are unduly complex.
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has emerged as a vital advocate
ported before trial, requiring them to defend against crimi-
system under OLS. We fight for an environment that upholds
and bond forfeitures where they are unable to appear for
nationality, as we collectively shape a brighter future for our
OUR FIGHT 09
