Texas lawmakers ask Justice Department to investigate, end Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border program

Fifty Democrats in the Texas House on Wednesday asked the Biden administration to investigate and “use all tools at your disposal” to end Gov. Greg Abbott’s border program, Operation Lone Star, which calls for state authorities to jail migrants on state trespassing charges. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Democratic lawmakers alleged that migrants had been subjected to a “vast umbrella of civil rights violations” under the operation, citing the cases of hundreds of migrants who were jailed for weeks without being formally charged, an apparent violation of state law. The Democratic lawmakers also argued that Operation Lone Star violates a clause of the U.S. Constitution that, coupled with Supreme Court precedent, gives the federal government authority to regulate immigration, preempting state and local laws.

“To allow the transgressions mentioned herein to go unaccounted for would constitute a gross abdication of the responsibility to uphold the rule of law and our federal system of government,” the lawmakers wrote. “We ask that you expeditiously review Operation Lone Star and use all tools at your disposal to end the policy in light of the very serious constitutional concerns outlined above.” Though Democrats in Austin have freely criticized Abbott’s border operation, the letter marks their first organized attempt to get the federal government to investigate and potentially halt the program. Their comments echo the legal argument used earlier this month to dismiss trespassing charges brought against Jesús Alberto Guzmán Curipoma, an Ecuadorian migrant who was arrested by state authorities last September. Guzmán Curipoma’s lawsuit prompted defense attorneys last week to seek the release of more than 400 migrants based on the argument that Operation Lone Star infringes on the federal government’s enforcement of immigration policy.