Texas Governor Greg Abbott, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas National Guard, continues to work tirelessly to reinforce border security and prevent illegal activities.
According to a Friday press release from Gov. Abbott, since the initiation of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency collaboration has resulted in “over 384,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 29,000 criminal arrests,” including “over 28,000 felony charges reported.”
Operation Lone Star is designed to bolster border security in what Gov. Abbott referred to as the “dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border.”
He emphasized that all individuals apprehended and drugs seized under this operation “would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation” as a result of President Joe Biden’s border policies.
The Texas law enforcement’s ongoing battle against the influx of fentanyl has led to the seizure of “over 419 million lethal doses of fentanyl” during this border operation.
A significant highlight of Operation Lone Star is the dispatch of over 500 buses to sanctuary cities across the nation.
These buses carry migrants, thus providing relief to overwhelmed border communities in Texas.
As stated by Governor Abbott, “Texas has bused more than 10,000 migrants to our nation’s capital since April 2022, over 8,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022, more than 2,600 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, more than 1,600 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, over 210 migrants to Denver since May 2023, and over 40 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14.”
The Governor’s press release made it evident that Operation Lone Star will persist in its mission to secure Texas’ border and prevent illegal smuggling.
Meanwhile, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) analyzed the most recent Census Bureau data, revealing that at least 16.8 million illegal aliens currently reside in the U.S.
According to FAIR, this figure represents a significant increase of 1.3 million since the start of 2022 and a total of 2.3 million since President Biden took office in January 2021.
“The unprecedented rate of influx of new illegal aliens over the past year would add $12.6 billion annually to the costs of illegal immigration, bringing the cumulative net cost to at least $163 billion a year,” according to a press release.
This annual net cost is expected to exceed $200 billion by 2026 if the current pace of illegal immigration continues.
