Update Southern Border: Operation Lone Star

Gov Greg Abott posted some stats on the progress they’re making down at the border.

The negative impact of this open border is being felt across the country.

So it’s always good to see progress occurring down there.

The war continues.

And with every passing day, we get closer to victory.

No war lasts forever.

Texas continues to combat human trafficking and the smuggling of deadly drugs like fentanyl across our southern border. 

We are working around the clock to defend our southern border. 

More from our weekly #OperationLoneStar update:

More: https://t.co/S5Vchy9jOB pic.twitter.com/YddllPG5vA

— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) April 20, 2024

Texas Govt website posted:

Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Texas National Guard continue to work together to secure the border; stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas; and prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal activity between ports of entry.

Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to over 508,900 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 41,900 criminal arrests, with more than 37,600 felony charges. In the fight against the fentanyl crisis, Texas law enforcement has seized over 475 million lethal doses of fentanyl during this border mission.

Texas has also transported:

• Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022
• Over 42,500 migrants to New York City since August 2022
• Over 34,700 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
• Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
• Over 18,100 migrants to Denver since May 18
• Over 1,500 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14

Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border. 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 due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.

Looks like states as far away as New Hampshire are feeling the pain of the open border.

Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with Democrats?

They sure love immigrants.

New Hampshire state Democrats are refusing to work with Republicans to curb the migrant crisis. #nhpolitics #BidenBorderCrisishttps://t.co/gZuPBZDYxD

— Republican State Leadership Committee (@RSLC) March 22, 2024

USA Today reports:

Johnny Burgess, 55, is thinking about the southern border when he casts his ballot this November.

Burgess also lives over 2,000 miles from the border he says is being taken advantage of.

“I mean, we’re all one America,” said Burgess, a resident of Tuftonboro, New Hampshire.

The self-employed registered Republican is like many in his state – particularly his state’s party – who say illegal immigration is top of mind in the 2024 election.

Almost a quarter of New Hampshire voters surveyed said immigration is the most important issue facing the country, in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll from January, just ahead of the state’s first in the nation Republican presidential primary.

The issue led the economy, which was number one for 17% of respondents, and abortion, which earned only 6% of voters’ top concern. New Hampshire Republicans specifically ranked immigration above all else, with 51% saying it was most important to them.

Republicans have worked to push immigration as the focus of the 2024 election − an issue their party tends to score well on − especially compared to other hot buttons like abortion. The strong reception in places like New Hampshire may signal an opening for the GOP in the race for the White House and down the ballot.

A University of New Hampshire poll in March found Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump with a slight edge over Democratic candidate President Joe Biden when voters were asked who they trusted more on the issue.

But the gap between candidates grew significantly among independents: 49% say they prefer Trump handling immigration policy compared to 32% who picked Biden.

And though the Granite State shares a northern border with Canada, voters and officials there told USA TODAY it’s the southern border capturing most of their attention.

“Because they have televisions,” Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire survey center, said of why voters in New England are paying such close attention to a national issue rooted on the other side of the country.

“They can see it on television, they read it in the paper, they hear politicians talking about it. And that makes it a major issue,” Smith said. “And I think it’s going to continue to be that way.”

Trump fans the flame with rhetoric

And almost no politician is better known for talking about the southern border than Trump.

His inflammatory language on immigration has brought condemnation from opponents, while rousing supporters.

“Walls work. We need to finish the wall,” Burgess said, referring to Trump’s infamous border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which he proposed as a candidate in 2016 and broke ground on as president.

With immigration being signature issue for Trump over the past eight years, the former president has continued to employ explosive rhetoric in his campaign. More recently, he said undocumented migrants were “not people” and bashed what he called “Biden’s Border Bloodbath.”

“There’s never been a border like this,” Trump said during a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Sunmin Kim, assistant professor of sociology at Dartmouth College with a focus on race and immigration, said Trump is the “mastermind” behind what he called “intense political engineering” and fearmongering.

“I suspect that the knowledge held by average Americans on immigrants are very secondhand and not very deep. It’s very impressionistic,” Kim said. “So it’s easy for them to accept new information as opposed to grounding their thoughts on their experience or reality.”

And the debate isn’t just resonating in New Hampshire. Voters in the neighboring New England state of Vermont ranked the border and immigration as their top issue in 2024, according to a February University of New Hampshire poll.

In Michigan and Wisconsin – key battleground states – most voters prefer Trump on the issue: 84% of Michiganders and 54% of Wisconsinites say they trust the former president more to handle immigration, according to recent polls.