For going on three years, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has relentlessly escalated a border battle against migrants and refugees under the banner of Operation Lone Star. Both a reactionary opportunist and a savvy lawyer, Texas' top executive has used his enterprise to test the boundaries between state and federal authority and to try to free Texas from strictures imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Abbott has distorted the state's criminal trespass statute to target unauthorized migrants; he's declared an "invasion" of Texas by Mexican cartels; he's sent asylum-seekers by the busload to other American states; he's empowered the Texas National Guard and state troopers to apprehend immigrants and return them to the U.S.-Mexico border; he's built a wall; and he's deployed dangerous river buoys in the Rio Grande.
