Operation Lone Star

In pursuit of Operation Lone Star, a project designed to control federal border security to prevent illegal immigration, Texas has spent two years and billions of dollars. This project placed razor wire in Eagle Pass, Texas, stretching for miles, lining the riverbank in dangerous coils extending from a barricade of shipping containers. This is used to make it more challenging to illegally immigrate.

This project has filled the U.S.-Mexico border with thousands of Texas state troopers and National Guardsmen. In addition, it has started work on a state-controlled border wall and built a new skeleton justice system with its own courts, judges and jails to lodge misdemeanor state trespassing charges against migrants. This is an explicit challenge to the national government’s control as by federal law, it controls international borders and immigration enforcement.

Despite the immense time and effort, there has been little indication that this project has been effective. Texas has seen the most rapid increases in illegal border crossings in the state since the operation began, and thousands of arrests by state troopers under the program have been unrelated to border security. These issues raise the question if this project is necessary for the US and if the amount of time and money spent for this project is worth it.

Additionally, this project has been perceived as treating people quite unfairly– troopers and guard members on the operation were instructed to push a nursing mother back into the river, to deny water to migrants even in extreme heat and to block a 4-year-old who was trying to cross coils of razor wire, from reaching shore. This draws a problem of treating people trying to immigrate extremely unfairly. Although they are immigrating illegally, many people still believe this is a social justice issue.

If the government decides that this project is worth it, they could work towards making it more efficient by expanding the project to the other states a part of the US-Mexico border. They could expand the razor wire across the US-Mexico border to continue making it challenging to immigrate. However, if the government decides this project is not worth it, they can work towards dismantling it as a whole and going back to their old methods of illegal immigration. To make this decision for the government, public opinion is quite important to advocate for either side. The people of the nation could become more aware of the project and work towards improving or dismantling it.