As Texas continues its multi-billion-dollar effort to stop what Republicans call an “invasion” of foreigners, state lawmakers were told this week that most of the people charged with smuggling immigrants during a recent 12-month period aren’t from outside the country.
The assessment came during a border-focused meeting of the Texas House Committee on State Affairs, where lawmakers also discussed how much more money Gov. Greg Abbott was going to request from the state legislature to continue Operation Lone Star, the governor’s state-led border security mission, when lawmakers return to Austin in January.
On the smuggling charges, Megan LaVoie, the administrative director for the Texas Office of Court Administration, told lawmakers Monday that data from May 2023 to April 2024 showed that 72% of those accused of smuggling immigrants were U.S. citizens. Less than 10% were from Mexico, she added.
“Man, that's just incredible. I guess I haven't really seen that. I didn't see this number before,” said state Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, who asked for the information.
LaVoie said those statistics reflect defendants who have been processed through the central magistration, a process available to state and local officials to process defendants arrested under Operation Lone Star.
Of those accused of human smuggling, U.S. citizens account for 1,038 while 140 were from Mexico. That was followed by 88 Hondurans, 43 Cubans and 35 Salvadorans.
Exactly who has been arrested for smuggling is noteworthy because of recent actions by the Texas Legislature. During a special session in late 2023, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 4, which increased penalties for human smuggling to at least 10 years in state prison in most cases. The legislation went into effect in February, but it’s unclear how many of the cases LaVoie referenced fall under that bill as that information wasn’t sought by lawmakers. (The SB4 smuggling bill is separate from Senate Bill 4 passed in a subsequent special session. That law makes unauthorized entry into Texas a state crime and is currently in litigation.)
Immigrant rights groups have been critical of the smuggling bill and have argued that they can lead to racial profiling or an arrest of a person for simply giving a migrant a ride.
In a July analysis of Texas’ border effort, known as Operation Lone Star, Human Rights Watch said that thousands of people have been arrested on smuggling charges “which in reality most often looks like driving with an undocumented person in their car.”
It’s unclear from Monday’s testimony how many of those cases have used that defense.
Lawmakers were also given an update on the state’s efforts to build a border barrier, something Abbott announced Texas would undertake when he first launched Operation Lone Star in 2021. Operation Lone Star has a current price tag of more than $11 billion but could expand based on construction, said Mike Banks, the state’s border czar installed by Abbott in January 2023.
The bulk of funds allocated for Operation Lone Star have gone to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department for their respective deployments of officers and soldiers to the border. A considerable amount has also been doled out to the Texas Facilities Commission, which oversees construction of the barrier.
Banks told the committee that about 44 miles of wall have been built – with an average cost of about $23 million per mile – and construction of another 17 miles is underway. Banks added that the state has funding for 110 miles and it’s currently able to build one mile of barrier every week.
But it’s unclear if that will satisfy Abbott and other lawmakers.
“So, if you're able to complete 110 miles, would we say that's sufficient? Or will the governor's office come back and say we need funding for a wall beyond the 110 miles?” asked state Rep. Chris Turner, R-Grand Prairie.
Banks said that depends on, in part, if Texas will be allowed to keep its floating barrier in place in the Rio Grande. In 2023, Abbott ordered that a 1,000-foot buoy be installed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass to deter migrant crossings. A federal appeals court ruled in late July that the buoys could remain on the river following a lawsuit by the Biden administration that alleged Texas didn’t have the authority to have them installed.
“If ultimately, the courts say you are within your rights to keep deploying these buoys and we can deploy buoys at a faster, cheaper, more cost-efficient rate and still be able to receive that level of efficiency, then we would need less,” Banks said. “It's hard for me to say exactly how many miles we need when we have so many options out there that are kind of in limbo or in the courts.”
Monday’s committee hearing came the same day the Biden administration announced it is extending and hardening a June executive order on immigration. In June, the administration restricted migrants from claiming asylum if unauthorized border crossings between ports of entry reached 2,500 per day. The restrictions would be lifted if the average daily figure dipped to 1,500 for a week.
The administration went a step further Monday and announced that the 1,500 average would need to occur over 28 days and that all children crossing the border would be included in the daily count, the Associated Press reported. The previous measure included only migrant Mexican children.
Texas officials said that since the start of Operation Lone Star, there has been a decrease of more than 80% in unauthorized crossings. Democrats have also pointed to the Biden action, which the White House said in a statement has led to a nearly 60% decrease in crossings.
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