TEXAS SIT-REP
BORDER 101
Colonel Terry Wilson, center, (USA-Retired) Representative TX-20
Article and photos contributed by COL Terry Wilson US Army, Retired R-TX20 State Representative for Williamson County
In September 2023, I had the opportunity to visit Eagle Pass, Texas, ground zero for the crisis on our southern border. I was accompanied by Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers, the Texas Military Department (TMD), and Chairman Ryan Guillen of the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety.
M
y September trip was just the latest of many trips to the border since the Biden administration assumed office, and the first time I attended with a delegation, rather than my usual unannounced visits. As chairman of the House Committee on Defense & Veterans’ Affairs, it is my duty to witness firsthand the challenges that the men and women of our state face to help secure the Texas border as part of Operation Lone Star (OLS).
I have dedicated my life to ensuring the safety and security of Texans. In my 32 years of military service, with numerous deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, I have worked firsthand fighting insurgency across the most dangerous borders in the world including the Afghan/Pakistan and Iranian borders. As your representative for House District 20, I have brought that experience to the border legislation I helped author, and to the advice and guidance I provide to our executive agencies in charge of enacting those laws.
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J A N UA R Y 2024
Not only is this issue of great importance to me as a veteran, a legislator, and a sixth generation Texan, it is important to me as a father. Our family is a family of service, and I am the proud father of a National Guardsman who has navigated balancing his college education with deployments to help protect our southern border. I say all this so that you know these words do not come cheaply, they come from a man experienced in dealing with dangerous borders, and a family with our own lives on the line.
WHAT IS THE CRISIS AT THE BORDER? The crisis at our southern border is one of dereliction of duty. Eleven years ago, the United States Supreme Court decreed in US v Arizona that only the US Federal Government had the ability to enforce immigration law. The Biden Administration has interpreted this decision to mean that a president can ignore immigration laws already passed by Congress, and simply choose not to
enforce the parts of the law that the president does not like. Operation Lone Star (OLS) is Governor Abbott’s initial response to the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure our border. Over the last two years, thousands of DPS Troopers alongside National and State Guardsmen have been deployed to the southern border. Since US v Arizona prevents direct immigration enforcement by the state, the OLS mission has been focused on building barriers and installing razor-wire to prevent illegal entry, and working with landowners near the border to enforce criminal trespass laws and other state laws that are often broken as a part of the process of entering the country illegally. Under the orders of President Biden, Federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are neglecting enforcement of immigration law by instituting a “catch-and-release” policy. I witnessed firsthand how CBP agents responded to migrants crossing the Rio Grande. As the migrants came up to the razor wire installed as part of the OLS mission,
