Texas law enforcement officials at the border looking forward to Trump administration changes
EAGLE PASS – While law enforcement efforts to secure Texas' border with Mexico have come under heavy criticism in recent years by immigrant rights advocates, many law enforcement officials say they are feeling positive as President Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Even in the weeks leading up to Trump's inauguration, some migrants were still trying to cross the border illegally, although the numbers have dropped dramatically.
One of the most criticized border security efforts in Texas has been the controversial Operation Lone Star, launched by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021. He deployed Texas DPS troopers to border hot spots to help deter illegal crossings and ordered them to arrest those who are in the country illegally for state crimes they commit.
DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for Operation Lone Star, said in an interview that he thinks the second Trump presidency will help their efforts on the border.
"I think it's also going to make it more efficient. Now that we have support now at the federal level. Something we have been wanting for the last four years. I think it's going to be helpful to us and the governor and what he has been able to do with Operation Lone Star," Olivarez said.
Operation Lone Star leaders, as well as Abbott, have long claimed the Biden administration failed to give them any support or guidance in mitigating the unprecedented spike in illegal border crossings along the Texas-Mexico border.
Olivarez said they are hoping to get support from the White House now and eliminate the challenges that have interfered with their work to secure the border.
"It's been very challenging over the last four years," he said. "You think about operation Lone Star, all the legal battles, the lawsuits, the criticism."
Criticism of Operation Lone Star
While leaders of Operation Lonestar are looking forward to the second Trump presidency, immigrant rights advocates in Eagle Pass said they want the heavy-handed enforcement approach to end.
In 2024 the American Civil Liberties Union released a critical report saying the state of Texas has spent more than $11 billion on Operation Lone Star. The report also said it has led to racial profiling, and most of the arrests were for low-level crimes like trespassing.
The ACLU said the overwhelming number of people arrested on serious charges involving drugs, weapons and human smuggling were U.S. citizens, not migrants.
"It's just so difficult that outsiders came into our community and changed the tone of how we live. It's affecting our culture, it's affecting our history, It's affecting the way we live our day-to-day life," said Jessie Fuentes, an advocate in Eagle Pass.
A rural border sheriff's experience
In nearby Kinney County, a rural stretch of the border between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Sheriff Brad Coe said the work to deter crime connected to illegal immigration has been a monumental task for his department made up of only six full-time patrol deputies.
Coe said at its peak in 2023, they recorded more than 250 car chases involving human smugglers and immigrants who crossed illegally. Many he said ended up in wrecks and dangerous bailouts.
The sheriff said he's also looking forward to Trump's border policies, and was critical of how President Biden handled the issue.
"I'm looking at what was going to be best for the country, and what we had wasn't doing what we felt was needed to be done in this part of the country," Coe said.
In December 2024, Abbott held a news conference along the border. CBS News Texas asked what his role might be in affecting congressional policy changes out of Washington now that he will have a president who aligns with his ideas on border security.
"What I want to ensure we deliver is making sure that we accomplish one task first. That is to stop illegal immigration into the United States. After we accomplish that goal then we can move on to the other goals, and it will be up to the Trump administration and those in Washington D.C. to figure out a pathway forward," Abbott said.
While the politics of securing the border continues, officials like Olivarez and Coe say they won't pull back on their efforts to secure the border until it's clear that illegal immigration is no longer a problem.
This is part three in a three-part series. See the other stories here.
