In early February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott met with the director of the state’s Department of Public Safety, and the two workshopped ideas about how to deal with the children and families arriving at the U.S. border in greater numbers—a “surge,” as Abbott calls it, a martial analogy requiring, in his view, a martial response. Shortly after, Abbott ramped up policing in border regions, deploying 1,000 state officers, including the Texas Rangers, to coordinate with the Texas National Guard and provide additional air, ground, and marine surveillance.
The move brought sharp criticism from immigrant rights groups, especially after the program expanded the duties of state police to interview unaccompanied minors. Abbott said these interviews will identify victims of human trafficking, but Melissa Lopez, an attorney at Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, questioned the timing of so-called Operation Lonestar.
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