In an operation being called “Lone Star 2.0,” more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety officers this year, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune. As illegal border crossings plunge, state police are shifting their energies toward aiding the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.
From late January through early September, DPS recorded 3,131 arrests by specialty teams created at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott and previously unreported. Nearly all those arrests were for allegedly violating federal immigration laws, a role once performed exclusively by federal authorities.
“Operation Lone Star 2.0 is underway statewide — with DPS personnel working to combat and interdict criminal activity with a nexus to the border,” DPS spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said in an email.
