| Texas |
Feb 2022 |
March 2022 |
FY 2021 1st Half |
FY 2022 |
| RG Valley |
44,073 |
44,073 |
44,073 |
245,390 |
| Del Rio |
41,621 |
41,621 |
41,621 |
195,289 |
| El Paso |
25,614 |
25,614 |
25,614 |
113,281 |
| Laredo |
13,779 |
13,779 |
13,779 |
53,427 |
| Big Bend |
3,653 |
3,653 |
3,653 |
19,363 |
| Total |
97,785 |
128,740 |
297,973 |
626,570 |
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OLS Results Meager in April
Based on Public Disclosures
Capitol Inside
May 4, 2002
The U.S. Border Patrol suspected a Chevrolet Silverado to be carrying migrants and narcotics when it led the Texas Department of Public Safety on a wild chase near Brownsville on Tuesday before plowing through a fence, smashing a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and careening into the Rio Grande.
The suspected drug trafficker escaped into Mexico. But the state's border security mission Operation Lone Star had an opportunity to claim some credit for its first apparent drug bust in more than a month when authorities found 480 pounds of marijuana in the abandoned pickup truck.
Abbott contended on Tuesday that Operation Lone Star was doing the federal government's job with almost 240,000 migrant apprehensions since its inception 13 months ago. That's almost 18 percent of nearly 1.35 million that the U.S. Border Patrol encountered at the Rio Grande in the past year.
The Republican who's seeking re-election this fall repeated the argument on Wednesday night in an interview on the obscure conservative television network NewsStation. "Everything Texas has had to do is because Joe biden has abdicated his responsibility as president of the United States," Abbott said.
With migrant apprehensions by the state averaging about 18,500 a month based on the Republican governor's figures, Operation Lone Star managed to round up slightly more than 200 in the entire month of April based on the information that Texas Military Department and the Department of Public Safety have available on social media and web sites. The Border Patrol apprehended nearly 2,000 people who'd crossed the Rio Grande illegally in Texas last month - according to detailed reports that it issued to the public during that time.
A review of the TMD, DPS and Abbott tweets on Operation Lone Star in April found that almost one half were purely promotional with no information on specific busts or apprehensions. Fifteen of 60 Twitter posts in question focused on actual apprehensions of migrants by the Texas National Guard who the TMD oversees and the state police.
Abbott asserted on Twitter on Tuesday that the state had seized 342 million lethal doses of fentanyl since the launching of Operation Lone Star. But a search for social media for specific drug busts in April by the state found none.
The TMD and DPS Twitter accounts include a couple of posts on Abbott's plan to bus migrants from the Texas border to Washington D.C. The governor touted the migrant travel scheme in a tweet about the first state charter bus arriving in the nation's capital. Abbott informed followers in a tweet on April 6 how they could watch the press conference that he used to unveil the busing plan and enhanced DPS commercial truck inspections at the international bridges that connect Texas to Mexico.
Abbott tweeted several times on agreements that he signed with four Mexican border governor and hailed to be working to secure the border on both sides of the river with a couple of videos that feature token shows of support by the governor of Coahuila on the south side. The flow of migrants who the pacts were supposed to slow has intensified to unprecedented levels when Abbott required his Mexican counterparts to sign them in exchange for releasing a hostage hold on traffic and trade with the bridge blockade that he created with the DPS safety checks.
Mexican leaders have accused Abbott of extortion as a result of the memos of understanding that the governors in state across from Texas were clearly coerced into signing. None of the Operation Lone Star forces have acknowledged the massive backlash that Abbott triggered with a truck stop ploy that cost the Texas economy an estimated $4 billion or more in nine days.
Operation Lone Star has been mired in self-inflicted problems from the outset - amid reports of suicide, alcoholism, pay issues, dismal living conductions, lack of training and equipment and shattered morale within the ranks. With 10,000 Texas National Guard members working in concert with the DPS, the Abbott initiative was designed to curb illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the Lone Star State.
One of every four tweets on Operation Lone Star by its leaders leaders in April included tangible examples of actual events with photos, videos or sufficient details to show that they weren't fabricated. The DPS and TMD have tweeted pictures with groups of young men who Texas forces apprehended. Most appear to be from Mexico or Central America - and they're standing up in some cases and sitting on the ground in others. Three of the migrants that DPS took credit for apprehending in April were from China. Most of the captured migrants appear to be happy despite the inconveniences after long and brutal journeys that took months before they reached their destination on the north shores of the Rio Grande.
Federal agents intercepted a man who's wanted for murder in Honduras at the international bridge in McAllen on Monday - according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release today with details on the event. The Border Patrol seized 71,590 pills of prescription medication on Sunday including 58,000 with Xanax at the international bridge that separates Los Indios from Matamoros in the Rio Grande Valley.
The CBP apprehended closer to 2,000 migrants in or near the Texas border in the past two weeks alone. Border Patrol agents confiscated almost 1,800 pounds of methamphetamine in Laredo that was valued at $35.2 million and more than 200 pounds of meth in El Paso and McAllen during the same span of time. The Border Patrol in the past two weeks has busted a half dozen members of the 18th Street and MS-13 gangs that are transnational criminal organizations in Central America and Mexico.
The Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard have taken credit for more than 60 migrant apprehensions in the same period. The CBP gives the DPS credit for assisting or taking the lead in the apprehension of 25 people in Texas illegally in the last two weeks. The DPS caught one large group of migrants with a dozen members or more on camera while they were traveling over private property in Kinney County. But Operation Lone Star failed to apprehend any migrants in that particular caravan.
That lack of evidence to support the superlatives has raised the specter that Abbott and the agencies that he controls have been attempting to conceal vital information from the public. If that's not the case, the state border security mission appeared to accomplish little or nothing in the past month compared to its federal counterpart.
The TMD posted five press releases on its web site in April - all centering on the drowning of National Guard Specialist Bishop Evans in the Rio Grande by the international bridge in Eagle Pass on April 22. None reveal what happened to Evans between the time he entered the river, disappeared and turned up dead three days later.
The DPS issued five statements to the media in April as well and two so far in May. All but one of the state police news releases in April and May so far focused on searches for fugitives on a most wanted list around the state. The other provided an account of an awards dinner for state troopers.
The state military agency reported initially that Evans had been attempting to save a female who appeared to be drowning while crossing illegally into Texas. The TMD revised the story the following day - asserting that Evans actually had been attempting to help two migrants whose genders were not specified in the second draft. Hours later, the TMD announced that DPS had learned that the two migrants in the river rescue disaster were transnational narcotics traffickers - a tale that's appeared to be a fabrication aimed to give the Texas soldier's tragic death a more heroic twist for Abbott tweets.
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