TEXAS, USA — Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas leaders have secured $495.3 million for Operation Lone Star, which is the state’s program to combat the immigration influx on the southern border.
Attorneys are now suing to end part of the program that allows for the arrest and detention of migrants that are trespassing on private property, saying civil rights are being violated.
“The fact that they’re standing on a certain property isn’t the reason that they’re being arrested. The reason that they’re being arrested is that they’re Black and Brown standing on private property,” said civil rights attorney Angelica Cogliano.
They allege that law enforcement had no reason to suspect that people were trespassing other than by racially profiling them. They also claim some migrants were directed onto private property by law enforcement so that they could be arrested.
“Our clients just want to come here and work. Our clients have not been arrested with drugs, they have not been arrested for smuggling, they are just here present in the U.S. trying to find work,” added attorney Addy Miro.
The attorneys are also suing for damages, as they say many have been kept in detention even after posting bail.
“Kinney County has been holding them months. Sometimes weeks and weeks after they are entitled to be released,” said Cogliano.
Cogliano and Miro said many of those arrested under Operation Lone Star are just fleeing danger from their home countries.
“Imagine if Ukrainian refugees weren’t across an ocean fleeing from the war and they came into the state of Texas, and our response to that was to put them in prison, not give them an attorney, and lock them up for an unforeseeable amount of time,” said Cogliano.
Though, Gov. Abbott still says the operation is a success and that they’re keeping criminals off the streets.
“They have arrested sex offenders and wanted cop killers. They have intercepted enough fentanyl to kill every man woman and child in Texas, California, New York, Illinois and Florida combined,” said Gov. Abbott.
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