AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott tells Breitbart Texas that since Operation Lone Star Border Patrol began its mission in March 2021, immigrant apprehensions in five Texas-based border regions have increased by 85 percent. He said it had decreased.
“Since we started this process (Operation Lone Star), the state of Texas has put up miles and miles of border wall, backed up with anti-climbing fencing, backed up by the National Guard, hundreds of miles of razor-sharp Looking at the wire border wall, Governor Abbott explained in an exclusive interview at the Governor's Mansion that “buoys in the river and other strategies that we have deployed have worked,'' adding, “Texas “Illegal immigration has decreased by about 85 percent from Brownsville to the state.” In El Paso, we only count people who cross into El Paso, not people who cross into New Mexico and come to El Paso. ”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks with Breitbart Texas' Bob Price about Operation Lone Star's impact on migrant crossings. (Photo: Texas Governor's Office)
As of the end of the 2024 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, just under 500,000 immigrants had been apprehended after illegally crossing the border between the five Texas-based Border Patrol division ports of entry. A year ago, that number was just over 1 million immigrants, Breitbart Texas reported. The net result was a 54% decrease in a single year. More than 1.2 million immigrants were apprehended in these categories in fiscal year 2022, Breitbart Texas reported. These numbers include immigrants apprehended in New Mexico in the El Paso area.
In March 2021, Governor Greg Abbott announced the launch of Operation Lone Star in response to increases in immigrant immigration, human smuggling, and drug trafficking. The operation began with the deployment of more than 1,000 state police and National Guard troops to the border.
The video below, released on the second anniversary of Operation Lone Star, details many of the operation's successes.
According to From the start of Operation Lone Star to July 19, 2024, Texas law enforcement officers and National Guard have arrested more than 500,000 immigrants, according to information from the Texas Governor's Office.. This resulted in more than 45,000 criminal arrests, including more than 39,000 felonies. The effort also led to the seizure of more than 505 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
Breitbart asked the governor what he expects to happen along the Texas border if former President Donald Trump is elected and takes office in 2025.
“So I talked to President Trump about what kind of policies he would take if elected president. “Mr. Abbott responded. “In his second term, he will be much more aggressive and much more effective in securing the border than he was in his first term.”
“What it would do is eliminate much of the cost that Texas taxpayers are incurring to secure our border,” the governor continued. “The current infrastructure that Texas has built will remain in place. Miles and miles of border wall will not come down. The razor wire border wall will not come down. We anticipate that we will do a significant amount of work in terms of ensuring safety and denying illegal entry, and that we will dramatically reduce what Texas needs to do to protect our state.”
Governor Abbott concluded, “We have proven that we can stop illegal immigration into the United States if we resist when we deny illegal entry.'' “That's exactly what Donald Trump did. This is exactly what Harris could have done and refused to do.”
bob price He is an associate editor and senior news contributor on the Breitbart Texas Border Team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston What is your point? sunday morning talk show. He is also the president of blue wonder cancer care products.
Editor's note: This is part 3 of an exclusive interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In Part 1, the governor spoke about Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to the border. The second part focused on the state's crackdown on the Venezuelan gang Torren de Aragua.
