END OPERATION LONE STAR ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

The Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance (RITA), Frontera Texas Organizing Project, and other border and immigrant advocates held a press conference at the South Steps of the Texas Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to call for the immediate end of the illegal Operation Lone Star. The border and immigrant advocates, residents, and impacted families also gave oral testimony and exposed the dangerous implications of this inhumane policy on border communities and their everyday lives.

The press conference occurred during the Texas Senate Committee on Border Security hearing on Operation Lone Star, which sought to study and report on the impact of Operation Lone Star on the border, rural, and urban communities throughout Texas.

From its inception, BNHR, alongside multiple other immigrant advocates, denounced Operation Lone Star and noted that Gov. Abbot has actively distorted the facts on immigration to push a racist, xenophobic, and white supremacy agenda to militarize the border further. Operation Lone Star is not simply illegal but a dangerous approach to solving the humanitarian crisis at the border. More than 850 migrants have died this year due to the federal and Texas governments’ deterrence policies at the U.S.-Mexico border. Title 42, the border wall, and Gov. Abbott’s statewide Operation Lone Star have caused vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers, and their families to use more distant and dangerous routes to seek safety in the United States, exposing them to the risks of assault, kidnapping, rape, and even death.

Furthermore, border residents, many of whom are American mistreatment by law enforcement agencies simply because they are Latinos and living at the border.