The initiative set up by Texas Governor Greg Abbott known as Operation Lone Star (OLS) has been impacting asylum seekers at the Texas-Mexico Border. OLS has imposed cruel, inhumane, and deadly treatment in the execution of its official mandate “to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas.”
Recent reporting has drawn attention back to OLS, with stories about:
- Migrant children being pushed into the Rio Grande and other migrants denied water,
- The opening of a jail facility for migrant women, as arrests increase under OLS, driven by a reliance on misdemeanor and trespassing charges
- The apparent death of migrants due to one of the newly installed “barrier buoys”; and,
- Reports about Texas troopers separating families.
The Biden administration must do more to prevent migrant arrests, mistreatment, and family separation occurring under OLS.
Let us urge President Biden and his administration to do more in challenging Operation Lone Star.
