End Operation Lone Star Campaign
Operation Lone Star is an over $4 billion enforcement operation that targets migrants for arrest, jail, and deportation. Created by Gov. Greg Abbott, the illegal and discriminatory scheme is designed to criminalize and rapidly deport migrants, many of whom are seeking safety in the United States. Operation Lone Star violates the U.S. Constitution, promotes racial profiling, fuels the mass incarceration of people of color, and encourages white supremacy rhetoric that is harmful to ALL Texans.
The Biden Administration's Broken Promises
“At the height of the pandemic and uprisings across the country - then presidential candidate Joe Biden rode a wave of support based on promises to take a progressive stance on immigration and to un-do the four years of harm that the Trump administration caused. Looking back at the last four years, we ask - did President Biden live up to his promises?” - Immigrant Justice Network
Operation Lone Star: What is it? How does it impact us, and why should I care?
How has the state of Texas been impacted by Operation Lone Star in its first years of operation? Learn more by downloading our zines below.
Created by Corinna Gardner, Colorado College Summer Activist Institute, Summer 2023
Translation by: Azucena Garza
Freedom or Prison:
Carlos and his Friends Fight for Dignity
Operation Lone Star: Misinformation and Discrimination in Texas Border Enforcement
Cruelty Exposed: Operation Lone Star's Impact at the Border
Why are state law enforcement agencies patrolling our national border? Recent reports from a DPS whistleblower revealed the cruel treatment of migrants at the border. The infrastructure and funding for these atrocities all emerged out of Operation Lone Star, a law enforcement program with a $9 Billion dollar price tag!
Community collective calls to action:
Watch this video to piece together how Operation Lone Star is criminalizing our communities, draining resources that border communities need, and impacting the national immigration agenda. Clips of news headlines are not owned by Grassroots Leadership. During a witness delegation held the summer of 2022 captured statements of volunteers, organizers, and staff.
Video sources can be found when you click on the video. US Immigration Policy Is to Blame for the Horrific Mass Death in San Antonio
To blame heat or smugglers alone dishonors those whose lives were robbed by local, state and federal immigration policy. By Claudia E. Muñoz-Castellano, TRUTHOUT Published June 29, 2022
“As a political system, Texas is a violence and death-oriented state. From the attacks on transgender youth, to the Uvalde tragedy, to the trigger ban on reproductive rights, our state mass-produces death and then spreads it to other places.
The federal government, while publicly showing outrage and disdain for places like Texas and the broader South, is an accomplice and enabler of the violence that robbed migrants of their lives in San Antonio this week.
The embrace of policies that orient toward care and health — rather than exclusion and violence — could have prevented yesterday’s mass deaths. Yet even though those lives were robbed by death-making policies, those human beings were much more than that. So are the survivors.”
53 migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. died earlier this week after being confined to a sweltering tractor-trailer. Human rights advocates blamed the tragedy on restrictive immigration policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as MPP or the “Remain in Mexico” program. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Biden has the power to end the Trump-era policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to stay on the Mexican side of the border in unsafe conditions while their cases were resolved in the U.S. “Every single migration-related death is preventable by policy that actually focuses on welcome and care,” says Claudia Muñoz, co-executive director of Grassroots Leadership.
