Texas Department of Public Safety troopers assigned to border security duty arrested 33 migrants on state charges of criminal trespass. The troopers, assigned to Operation Lone Star, arrested the migrants on private ranches near the Texas-Mexico border.
Members of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s elite brush team arrested 33 migrants on private ranches, DPS officials tweeted over the weekend.
The Texas police officers are not making arrests under immigration law. Rather, criminal trespass charges arise when migrants march through private property in an attempt to avoid detection. The migrants frequently damage or steal property as they attempt to hide from Border Patrol agents — violations of Texas state laws.
DPS officials report the filing of more than 2,600 criminal trespass charges under Operation Lone Star which Governor Abbott put in place due to the changes in border security and immigration policies put in place by President Joe Biden almost one year ago.
Early last week, DPS troopers working near Laredo, Texas, conducted a traffic stop on a commercial tractor truck. When the driver of the truck stopped, he immediately fled into the brush along the interstate highway.
The trooper searched the truck and found 28 migrants hiding inside the sleeper cab of the truck. The troopers worked with Border Patrol agents and apprehended the driver, 24-year-old Dartavious Raytrell Dixon, a Houston resident.
Agents report the 21 adult males, 6 adult females, and one juvenile male came to the U.S. from Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras, officials reported.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.