Immigration Article of the Day: The Dystopian World Of Operation Lone Star And Its Challenge To Arizona V. United States by Bill Ong Hing

In early November 2024, Abbott’s office boasted that more than half a million migrants had been arrested since the inception of Operation Lone Star (OLS), including more than 41,700 charged with a felony. The OLS press release highlighted Abbott’s political stunt of transporting migrants to “sanctuary cities” like Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles.

Of course, his announcement not only failed to mention the tragic deaths that have resulted from OLS, but ignored the culture of fear in communities of color fomented by OLS enforcement and the anti-immigrant environment created by the policies. Under the surface, Operation Lone Star is a means of furthering Abbott’s political agenda to carry out his anti-immigrant views. Abbott’s efforts enjoy widespread support, including from Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. And as I set forth in this article, while current Supreme Court jurisprudence does not support the constitutionality of most statutory provisions enacted as part of the initiative, Abbott claims that he is acting properly by asserting Texas’s “sovereign interest in protecting [her] borders” because President Biden violated the constitution leaving Abbott with “no other choice.”

In this article, I provide an overview of Operation Lone Star from its legislative components to actions motivated by an immigration enforcement philosophy like placing razor wire on the banks of the Rio Grande River, dangerous vehicle pursuits, and land seizures. I then turn to the dark side of OLS that includes deaths that have resulted from its components as well as racial profiling and its links to White Supremacist groups and private vigilante groups. The next part reviews some of the court challenges to OLS as well as a discussion on how the major federal court challenge to OLS will fare at the Supreme Court. Then I profile some acts of resistance to OLS—particularly those led by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. The closing section includes a discussion on what a partnership between the new Trump administration and Texas on immigration enforcement will mean; in essence it means the obliteration of the border between federal and state immigration enforcement.

KJ