As sure as the sunrise over the Rio Grande, the illega
crossings along Texas's 1250 mile border with Mexico go
up spring is the season when thousands of migrants seek
entry into the United States, not through official
ports, but by crossing the river Policing the border is
primarily a federal responsibility. But increasingl
the state of taxes is stepping into immigration
enforcement with a $3 billion Texas National Guard.
Governor Greg Abbott says it's because Washington isn't
getting the job done. The Obama administration has
completely abdicated its responsibility to secure the
border. The political blowback against Abbott's massi
border security program dubbed Operation Lone Star is
coming from all the expected places, advocacy group
and Democrats. I understand that it's costing the state
taxpayers about 2.5 million a week, but it's also
coming from within the ranks of the National Guard and
then for us to be down here. Okay, there's politi
plans for mm hmm. That agenda by the governor. It's,
it's unfortunate. It's disgraceful to what they're
doing to service members. Newsy spoke with a number of
actively deployed texas. National Guard soldiers who
all agreed to speak only under the condition of
anonymity because they fear being retaliated against
for speaking out according to texas military law.
Soldiers who speak their minds can be prosecuted if any
used contemptuous words against the governor. They
shall be punished as a court marshal directs. Can you
just describe how much trouble you get in. If I put
your face on camera crew will be over The biggest
portion, almost $1.4 billion dollars goes to the
governor's office alone for state sponsored border wall
and prosecutions of migrant trespassing on private
property. The state's Departmen of Public Safety gets
942 million for expanded trooper missions. And the
texas military department that oversees the National
Guard got more than 411 million that has paid for the
deployment of 10,000 texas National Guard from el paso
to Brownsville. It didn't seem like it was very well
plan, which it was not. And there's still question
about how effective again with the job that we're doing,
how effective it is for us to be. Down here. We heard
the same kinds of complaints from everyone we spoke to.
They all mobilized on short notice for a mission they
thought would be short term. But that mission has
dragged on far beyond what they expected in this man's
case. It's been six months with six months still to go.
It looks like it's going to be a year to stand on the
border. Yeah, not effectively turn anyone around. It
doesn't make sense. And here's why that matters because
the federal government is not helping pay for Operation
Lone Star Guard soldiers are considered temporary state
employees and that means they don't get federal
benefits they'd normally receiv Don't get any points
for retired command Sergeant Major Jason Feathersto
was the highest ranking non commissioned officer in the
texas military department. He says he's just as upset
as these service members and blames the governor and
politics. I think this is definitely a $3 billion
campaign ad in 2021 the army Times reported four
soldiers took their lives by suicide after the texas
Military department refused some their hardship leave
requests, some faced financial and family pressures or
miss job opportunities. Featherston says those suicides
moved him to speak whenever you're not focused on the
soldier. Uh, bad things happen. You just add another
level of stress along with the economic hardship the
soldiers we spoke to just don't see the point of the
mission as described by the soldiers themselves and
outlined at the texas state Senate committee hearing
and border security. The powers of the deployed guard
are limited. They can't detain migrants or arrest them.
That's the jurisdiction of U.S. Border Patrol unless
state troopers are with the garden private ranches to
round up migrants for trespassing. They are empowered
to do little else and observe, report or engage in
construction work time, either a hotel or sitting at
a point on somewhere on the border watching for the
possibility of someone crossing the border and in your
time wherever you are posted. Um What have you seen I
have seen apparitions from bord Um I have not been
involved in any apprehensions myself and I would say
that that would be true for most of the guardsmen that
are down here. The Governor's office declined. New
request for a direct on camera interview about
Operation Lone Star. So we caught up with him at an
event in the Rio grande valley. I've, you know, we've
learned that it's costing taxpayers roughly $2.5
million per week to keep National Guard soldiers
deployed per your order. I've spoken with dozens who
feel that their presence down here across the border is
nothing more than a show. Do you think that's a good
use of taxpayer dollars You may visit with dozens of
people. I have been on the border with our National
Guard multiple times and I've visited with hundreds if
not thousands of them. And they tell me sir, we
appreciate your leadership, but the soldiers we spoke
to didn't appreciate it at all. You know, the pointer
is pretty much pointless and we're just here. Uh pretty
much just for Abbott, you know, to get his numbers in
for for election. The mission is under new command. The
new Adjutant General has pledged to fix problems with
pay, living quarters, equipment and most of all morale.
Is there a universal opinion about the efficacy of your
time down Um, it's a, it's a waste of time for us to be
down here. Um, especially when from civilian jobs.
Schools, despite the concerns of Guard members,
Operation Lone Star and its costs aren't ending anytime
soon. The texas military Department just got an
additional $465 million. All re allocated from other
texas state agencies to continu at its current pace at
least until this fall, John Moon joins us live tonight
from Houston. John you pointed out here, Texans pay
more than $2 million dollars per week. One soldier
called it pointless. Does the governor's office point
to any actual data to prove it's working Yeah. I mean
the governor's office is eager to say that this
operation lone star has resulted in close to 240,000
migrant apprehensions, 14,000 arrests and millions of
doses of fentaNYL seized. However, when those numbers
were scrutinized by our cohorts over a propublica
marshall project in texas tribune the story that they
reported concluded that they couldn't get them. They
couldn't verify many of those statistics. To the point
when they pushed back on the Department of public
safety DPS had to re categorize many of the arrests
claimed and erase thousands off the books on those
statistics. Okay. So we know Abbott, he likes to get
tough and he likes to be perceived as tough. We've se
other actions by him imposing those inspections on
trucks that were coming over the border. There were the
backlog supply chain issues. Eventually he relented on
that he got some concessions from Mexico. But th
criticism here is that maybe he's using taxpayer
dollars to further his own immigration agenda and
campaign politically. Is it popular Look if you're
farther away from the river and you only see this
through the television set. Yeah, it's going to be
popular. But the closer you are to the river and you
depend on trade from Mexico and trade going into Mexico
is your livelihood Well, you know, anywhere from 4 to
$9 billion of G.D.P. Uh, decided by someone erased off
the books. And it caused a lot of stress for people in
the freight forwarding business and in the produce
business. So around there it got a lot of flak, even
from the texas produce association, pushing back in th
governor saying do something about this fast and when
pushed DPS said of its enhanced inspections didn't
result in any fines behind what customs and border
protection would get at the port of entry chance. And
we know the federal government usually says, listen
this is our domain. But Abbott, he he contends if I
don't do this, we have an open border. It is my job. We
are a border state. I have to do. This is the biden
administration may be willing to step up enforcement,
making people like Abbott more comfortable to rely on
their enforcement. Well, this is always about framing.
I mean, for the record, the border isn't open, even if
people claim it is. I mean, people are the laws
enforced. If you cross over the river and you don't
present yourself at a port of entry, you were detained,
you were processed and then you're given a court date
as far as the biden administration is concern
A month ago. They had a big, you know, teleconference
telling everyone in the media that they were going to
be surging personnel in the anticipation anticipatio
of lifting total 42 to deal with the perceived a surge
of people coming over, as well as giving local
communities the resources neede and NG. O.S to handle
people who will be, you know, perhaps crossing by the
thousands and needing help to get to their eventual
destination somewhere in the United States, chance.