Editorial By Bob Dane
fairus.org
A group of illegal aliens in Texas has filed a lawsuit claiming their arrests on local and state charges are “unconstitutional.” Adding to this class-action chutzpah, they want more than $5 million in compensation.
The 98-page legal long shot in federal district court in Austin has yet to get support from the Biden administration – and there are good reasons why not.
You can read the documents at: (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1171130/gov.uscourts.txwd.1171130.1.0_1.pdf)
The 129,000 illegal entries into Texas this past March were 11,000 more than in March 2021, The New York Times reported. At this pace, the total will surpass the combined populations of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio by the end of 2024.
Countering Border Patrol catch-and-release protocols, Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star (OLS) to arrest and jail illegal aliens who violate state and local laws. Though the migrants’ lawsuit alleges a vigilante campaign, OLS is simply enforcing laws applicable to any U.S. citizen.
The migrants’ court filing notes that OLS had incarcerated 2,887 illegal aliens through March 2022. Most received short sentences for criminal trespassing, with others convicted for burglary, robbery or auto theft. (Drug and human trafficking busts were not included.)
With its two designated detention facilities remaining at less than half capacity, Texas’ pushback has been modest and restrained. Police pursue trespassers with the consent of ranchers and property owners harried by intruders who frequently wear camouflage to blend in with the harsh, brushy terrain.
For all the resources Texas is expending on OLS, Ken Cuccinelli, a top Homeland Security official in the Trump administration, told the Times: “Lone Star hasn’t moved the needle one iota for the simple reason that they’re not returning people to Mexico.” Indeed, as Border Patrol agents stand down, OLS arrests are essentially a speed bump to illegal entry.
“When the federal government abandons its responsibilities to protect our borders, this is the kind of chaos that results,” says Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI).
Still, Wilcox hails Texas’ effort on legal and practical grounds, as far as it goes.
“The residents and the leadership of Texas cannot be asked to simply watch as their state is overrun with foreign nationals. They also cannot be told to absorb the financial costs of reckless federal policies. Entering Texas illegally from Mexico is trespassing by definition,” he stated in an email.
Illegal aliens seeking to make a federal case of Operation Lone Star should be laughed out of court and sent back across the border, post haste.