By Gary Borders
In an operation being called “Lone Star 2.0,” more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety officers this year, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune. As illegal border crossings plunge, state police are shifting their energies toward aiding the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.
From late January through early September, DPS recorded 3,131 arrests by specialty teams created at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott and previously unreported. Nearly all those arrests were for allegedly violating federal immigration laws, a role once performed exclusively by federal authorities.
“Operation Lone Star 2.0 is underway statewide — with DPS personnel working to combat and interdict criminal activity with a nexus to the border,” DPS spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said in an email.
Only the federal government has the authority to enforce immigration violations. State and local police cannot arrest someone solely for being undocumented without agreements made with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the agencies under its umbrella, The Tribune reported.
Unlike the original Lone Star initiative along the border, DPS officials have remained tight-lipped about its deportation efforts in the state’s interior.
Nearly half of Texas counties are maternal care deserts
A recent report concludes that 47% of Texas counties are “maternity care deserts, The Dallas Morning News reported. The report from the nonprofit March of Dimes concludes those counties have no obstetric providers, birth centers, hospitals with obstetric units, and no OB-GYNs or family doctors who practice obstetrics. Further, another report indicates that 93 of the state’s 160 rural hospitals do not have labor and delivery units.
Shortages of obstetric care occur throughout the state, regardless of geography, though rural areas are most affected. As a result, rural mothers are at much higher risk of death than mothers in urban areas. In some areas, maternal death rates in rural areas are nearly double the rates of urban areas.
The Texas Legislature approved more than…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!