Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Department of Public Safety launched Operation Lone Star on Saturday to counter the smuggling at the southern border of Texas.
According to the governor’s office release, Operation Lone Star will send law enforcement personnel and resources to “high threat areas” of the border “to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas,”.
The Operation integrates DPS with the Texas National Guard and deploys air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.
The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” said Governor Abbott. “Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.
Today Texas launched Operation Lone Star to respond to the border crisis.
It deploys Nat’l Guard + DPS Officers + air, ground, marine, & tactical border security assets to deny Mexican Cartels & smugglers the ability to move drugs & people into Texas.https://t.co/r68J2laDpH
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 7, 2021
Breitbart reports,
The announcement follows a massive increase in illegal border crossings since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Earlier this week, Democrat Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) announced that Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 10,000 migrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector during a seven-day period ending on Wednesday, Breitbart Texas reported.
“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” Congressman Cuellar said in a written statement. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”
In Brownsville, Texas, city officials said that six percent of the migrants being released at the bus station to obtain transportation into the U.S. interior are testing positive for COVID-19, Breitbart Texas reported. The Brownsville official said they do not have the authority to prevent those who test positive from boarding buses to travel into the U.S. interior. A worker at the bus station told Fox News they cannot ask passengers for proof of coronavirus test results before transit. Cuellar added, “I urge the Biden Administration to listen and work with the communities on the southern border who are dealing with the surge of migrants.”
