More than 400 arrests of illegal immigrants in Texas are facing court challenges in Travis County.
Earlier this month, a Travis County state district judge dismissed a trespassing charge against an Ecuadorian man arrested in Kinney County by state troopers. The judge ruled the arrest was unconstitutional because regulating immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, not the states.
The challenged arrests all took place in the same county under Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star, which seeks to protect the border.
December 20 of last year the Texas public Safety Office approved an additional $38 million for law enforcement and jail operations supporting Operation Lone Star.
The program was launched last March by the governor's office in conjunction with the Department of Public Safety. In a statement released when Operation Lone Star began Governor Abbott said the action “integrates DPS with the Texas National Guard and deploys air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.”
photo: Getty Images