Fifty Texas House Democrats have sent a letter to the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security requesting a federal investigation into Gov. Greg Abbott's immigration and border policy known as Operation Lone Star, calling the initiative unconstitutional and a violation of migrants' civil and due process rights.
The lawmakers' chief concern with Operation Lone Star is its novel approach to immigration enforcement: arresting and detaining migrants on state misdemeanor criminal trespassing charges. The letter, sent Wednesday, reads in part: "From its inception, Operation Lone Star has suffered from Constitutional deficiencies that upend our federal system of government. Governor Abbott has unilaterally set this state immigration policy and created a system of state immigration enforcement to be carried out by various state agencies."
The letter goes on to argue that the resulting swell of migrant arrests has overwhelmed local court systems that don't have the resources to process the cases in a timely manner, and has led to some migrants remaining in state custody for weeks as they wait for a court date, in possible violation of their due process rights.
