Texas Governor’s Border Initiative Data Raises More Questions Than Answers
Governor Abbott, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Military Department have fought two dozen public records requests from news organizations that would provide a clearer picture of the operation’s accomplishments, considering their touting of thousands of criminal arrests and millions of doses of lethal drugs — without substantial evidence.
While Texas Governor Greg Abbot and the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) have repeatedly boasted about the successes of the border security initiative Operation Lone Star, touting more than 11,000 criminal arrests, drug seizures that amount to millions of “lethal doses” and the referrals of tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants to the federal government for deportation as signs that the program is effective. However, the state’s claim of success has been based on shifting metrics that included crimes with no connection to the border, work conducted by troopers stationed in targeted counties prior to the operation, and arrest and drug seizure efforts that do not clearly distinguish DPS’s role from that of other agencies, reports ProPublica.
DPS reportedly stopped counting more than 2,000 charges toward Operation Lone Star more than nine months into the exercise, including cockfighting, sexual assault, stalking, and about 270 violent crimes like murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Claiming such arrests is “inherently flawed” and misrepresents the accomplishments of the operation, said Patrick O’Burke, a law enforcement consultant and a former DPS commander who retired in 2008. Abbott, DPS and the Texas Military Department have fought two dozen public records requests from news organizations that would provide a clearer picture of the operation’s accomplishments. DPS still includes other charges without explaining how they align with the operation’s goal of capturing dangerous criminals.