Texas Renews Border Security Disaster Declaration

Illegal immigrants wait in the Rio Grande for an opening in the razor wire barrier, to cross into the United States, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 25, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has extended a disaster declaration at the state’s southern border, citing a surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the border that pose a continued threat to local communities.

“The certified conditions continue to exist and pose an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster,” Mr. Abbott wrote in the June 28 proclamation.

Mr. Abbott first declared the border security disaster on May 31, 2021, nearly three months after launching Operation Lone Star, which allowed for more resources and strategies to be deployed to combat the influx of illegal immigrants into Texas.

At the time, Mr. Abbott said that landowners along the border were seeing their property damaged and vandalized daily due to the federal government’s “open border policies.”

Mr. Abbott said at the time that the federal policies “have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Members of the Biden administration have denied claims that the president’s border policies have exacerbated the problem of illegal immigration.

Since first issuing his border security disaster proclamation, Mr. Abbott has extended it several times, modifying the list of affected counties.

The current list of counties for which the Texas governor has declared a border security disaster is as follows: Aransas, Atascosa, Bee, Brewster, Brooks, Caldwell, Cameron, Chambers, Coleman, Colorado, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, DeWitt, Dimmit, Duval, Edwards, El Paso, Frio, Galveston, Goliad, Gonzales, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, La Salle, Lavaca, Live Oak, Mason, Maverick, McCulloch, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Pecos, Presidio, Real, Refugio, San Patricio, Schleicher, Shackelford, Sutton, Terrell, Throckmorton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Webb, Wharton, Wilbarger, Wilson, Zapata, and Zavala.

All of the orders, directions, suspensions, and authorizations that were provided in the original May 31, 2021 proclamation remain in effect.

Operation Lone Star Update

On the same day that he extended the border security disaster declaration, Mr. Abbott provided an overview of Operation Lone Star, which has included  the deployment of members of the Texas National Guard to border areas and the installation of wire fencing, floating barriers, and border walls.

Mr. Abbott said on June 28 that since the launch of Operation Lone Star in March 2021, the multi-agency effort has led to the apprehension of more than 514,900 illegal immigrants and more than 44,600 criminal arrests, along with more than 38,900 felony charges.

He also said that Texas law enforcement has seized more than 504 million lethal doses of fentanyl.

“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” Mr. Abbott’s office said in a statement. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott holds a press conference at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 4, 2024. (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)

While Republicans like Mr. Abbott have blamed President Biden and his administration for making the problem of illegal immigration worse, Democrats have blamed Republicans in Congress for hypocrisy on the border crisis.

Democrats have pointed to tough GOP rhetoric on border security while noting that congressional Republicans blocked a border security bill backed by President Biden that would have ordered the suspension of asylum requests and the automatic denial of entrance to illegal immigrants once daily crossings exceeded 5,000.

Republicans objected to that measure as insufficient, warning that it could even make the situation worse by potentially codifying entry into the country for 5,000 illegal immigrants per day.

About four months after the border security bill failed, President Biden issued an executive order that shut down asylum requests at the U.S.–Mexico border once the average number of daily encounters exceeds 2,500 for seven consecutive days. The freeze on asylum requests stays in place until the daily average remains below 1,500 for at least a week.

President Biden signed the proclamation on June 4, and it took effect immediately.

Monthly illegal crossings have fluctuated in recent months between around 170,000 and 190,000, after hitting a record high of more than 301,000 in December 2023.

While the numbers of illegal crossings have not yet been released for June, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said that there were “positive” early signs that it’s working to reduce the flow of illegal immigration.