Texas’ Operation Lone Star nets over 53,000 migrant apprehensions, 3,400 arrests
Program launched in March to secure US-Mexico border
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Operation Lone Star program launched by Texas to combat the smuggling of drugs and people across the U.S.-Mexico border has now resulted in more than 53,300 migrant apprehensions and 3,400 criminal arrests, the state’s Department of Public Safety tells Fox News.
Its troopers, through July 22, have also been involved in 546 vehicle pursuits and have seized more than 4,800 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamines, 936 firearms and $7.8 million dollars in the areas of the Rio Grande Valley, Del Rio, Big Bend and El Paso, the department says.
"Since Operation Lone Star began in March, DPS has deployed around one-thousand Troopers to assist at the border," it added in a statement. "DPS Troopers continue to enforce all state violations of law including, but not limited to, criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, smuggling and human trafficking."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TEXAS BEEFS UP BORDER CRACKDOWN
In March, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the "crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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," the governor added.
On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News that his state has been "forced into" arresting migrants crossing the border illegally because the federal government has "no interest in doing the job."
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.