The unsustainable costs of Operation Lone Star, the Texas model for Trump’s immigration agenda

The Texas border is militarized, not by Donald Trump, but by Governor Greg Abbott. Since 2021, the state has spent more than $11 billion in public funds to finance Operation Lone Star, its hardline immigration program that serves in some ways as a model for Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Over the past four years, Abbott has moved some 10,000 state military police from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the National Guard to the border, in addition to the federal forces that have been stationed there; forcibly sent more than 100,000 migrants to “sanctuary cities” governed by Democrats; installed 70,000 rolls of razor wire and saw-blade buoys in the Rio Grande; erected some 100 miles of border wall; and begun construction of a military base in Eagle Pass for nearly 2,000 National Guard troops.

For the program’s opponents, activists, and migrant advocates, Lone Star has been a “waste of time and money” that has diverted needed funds from other areas and benefited certain related contractors, according to an independent analysis. It also offers a glimpse of what could happen on an even larger scale if Trump’s deportation plans are implemented.

Priscila Olivarez, a senior policy strategist and attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), the organization behind the recently released report, believes the program has been a failure by several different metrics. “I think if you talk to community members in Texas, it is another example of the waste that has been created by our officials. It’s been a failure to meet our real needs. When we talk about immigration and migration, we can have a humane response to people who are coming to our border. Operation Lone Star has failed to do that. It’s failed to meet the needs of our community members. And so if you look at the cost, if you look at the human toll, if you look at how it’s increased harmful anti-immigrant rhetoric in the state, it’s a failure at every analysis,” she says by phone from San Antonio, although she admits that it depends on how you define success and failure. If the goal, as some other critics say, was to create a sense of crisis — because even though migration flows were high when Lone Star began, Texas in particular was not affected much because migrants do not tend to remain in the state — and to make migration the main concern of voters, both inside and outside Texas, Lone Star has been a resounding success.

But beyond the debate over whether it has fulfilled its duties, the bill has been exorbitant, straining budgets and services in other areas of state government. ILRC’s estimate for Lone Star’s cost is based on several reports citing a weekly outlay of $2.5 million per week in operating expenses alone and an overall budget of $4.8 billion for two years beginning in January 2023. Add in a proposed $6.5 billion for Lone Star through 2027, and the total price tag for the operation would reach nearly $18 billion. For reference, this is roughly what the United States spent on military support for Israel in the first year of the Gaza war.

As spending spirals out of control, community leaders in Texas, especially in the militarized border region, are speaking out to say that these funds could and should be used to benefit and strengthen public services and infrastructure. “I think it is very concerning because if you travel to Eagle Pass [where Lone Star’s base of operations is located], you see how militarized it is. And when you speak with community members, this isn’t something that they asked for. They didn’t ask for this militarization. They didn’t ask for this military base,” Olivarez said.

With an average of 14% of the population below the poverty line and many counties, especially on the border, experiencing poverty levels above 20%, Texas’ social programs have been directly impacted by Lone Star. For example, Abbott has diverted $975 million in federal coronavirus aid and $426.9 million from the state’s prison system, while choosing not to invest in the state’s electrical system — which has led to numerous massive blackouts that are expected to be worsened by more extreme weather — as well as cutting spending at the department dedicated to protecting children and families, which has led to a federal investigation accusing the state of abuse and neglect at shelters for children with disabilities.

“Prioritizing Operation Lone Star at the expense of virtually all other state functions is having detrimental effects across the state, including local law enforcement agencies,” the ILRC report says. “One resident of Kinney County, an area at the heart of the operations, notes that his local police are focused on immigration enforcement rather than issues like domestic abuse that affect his community.” At the federal level, the impact of cuts to fund the immigration agenda can be devastating.

Militarization has also been questioned at the military level. Daniel Hokanson, the former head of the U.S. National Guard Bureau, testified before the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee that “there is no military training value for what we do [on the border].” Members of the National Guard also report late payments, unsanitary conditions in camps, lack of adequate equipment, and the deaths of at least 10 soldiers deployed under Lone Star, at least four of whom are suspected of having taken their own lives.

The conclusion critics are drawing is that the real motivation is not to effectively address the problem of absorbing millions of migrants, but to create and maintain the illusion of a crisis for political gain. “I think there is a lot of inconsistency when you look at the messages from the federal and state governments,” said Olivarez. “Greg Abbott has asked for federal reimbursement, but not for the program to be stopped. Previously, the narrative was that the Biden administration was not doing its job, but now the Trump administration has said it is implementing all these immigration executive orders and policies. If that is the case, why has Operation Lone Star not disappeared?”

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