By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square

Like the Texas National Guard troops blocking illegal entry near El Paso at the Texas-Mexico border, troops are successfully blocking illegal entry along the Rio Grande River at the opposite end of Texas near Brownsville through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star.

“They are doing so as Mexican drug cartels attempt to recalibrate their criminal smuggling operations to continue profiting off the chaos created by President [Joe] Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott said.

The governor said there was “only one thing that caused them not to enter illegally: the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety building the barriers that were needed to prevent people from entering and then having the personnel behind those barriers to ensure that no one would enter.

“As far as I know, it’s the first time in American history that a state has led the effort to prevent people from entering the United States illegally.”

Texas soldiers helped install miles of additional razor wire along the border and continue to maintain a strong presence behind the barriers. Their drone teams are also working to detect foreign nationals who’ve entered illegally and weren’t caught.

Captain Christopher Semonis, Operation Officer, Task Force East, Brownsville, said, “we have our soldiers repeating Title 8,” the federal law governing entry to the U.S., “to the migrants on the other side reminding them that if they cross illegally they will have a five year probationary period when they are deported back to Mexico.”

In a video published by the Texas Military Department, foreign nationals can be seen trying to cross the Rio Grande River between ports of entry near Brownsville and a Texas soldier can be heard speaking in Spanish through a megaphone, saying, “it is illegal to cross into the United States, even to be deported, even if it is Mexico.”

In the video, groups of foreign nationals are seen walking along the other side of the concertina wire unable to enter or they are camped out on the Mexican side across the river.

Semonis said, “what we’ve done, we’ve seen a drastic reduction in the numbers here and they have been given a clear message on what we’re going to do.”

Staff Sergeant Samual Garza, Remote Pilot in Command, said he joined the drone team because he thought operating drones would be the most efficient way to identify where foreign nationals are hiding in Texas after they illegally entered and weren’t caught by Border Patrol.

Using drones, he said, “we can coordinate our ground teams and have less resistance of IAs being captured.” “IAs” is short for “illegal aliens,” the legal term in Title 8 referring to noncitizens who illegally enter the U.S., and one used by those in law enforcement.

Because National Guardsmen and state troopers are catching many people at night, he said, drones help keep them safer by limiting how much time they run into the brush to chase people running away, saving time and avoiding injuries. Using drones, he said, “we just walk up on the IAs and there’s not that much resistance and they’re already caught.”

“The Texas National Guard continuously deploys their soldiers and airmen with the resources and technology necessary to detect, deter, and apprehend people that illegally cross the border into Texas,” the TXMD said in a statement. “In conjunction with the Department of Public Safety, the service members utilize loudspeaker to broadcast the newest policy changes that effect the federal response to border crossings: migrants who come into the United States between the authorized points of entry, their asylum claims will be denied and they will be deported back to their country of origin and barred from attempting asylum for a minimum of five years.”

Since they’ve employed this new tactic, TXMD says, and since the end of Title 42 on May 12, “the number of illegal crossings per day have steadily declined by nearly 50%.”

Since Abbott launched OLS in March 2021, officers have apprehended over 376,000 illegal foreign nationals and made over 28,000 criminal arrests, with more than 25,000 felony charges reported. They’ve also seized over 416 million lethal doses of fentanyl.

At a press conference on Friday, Texas Military Department Brigadier General Matthew Barker said, “The eyes of Texas and indeed the entire nation have been on our guardsmen for the past few weeks and they have performed flawlessly. I am so proud of their skill, their professionalism, their operational agility, and their resolve … to hold the line. We will continue to hold the line.”