Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's initiatives to address the southern border's migrant crisis appear to have had an effect.
The man who launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, when state troopers and National Guard soldiers were sent to patrol the border, recently said that although Texas has more than two-thirds of the U.S.-Mexico boundary, the state has seen fewer illegal crossings than other border states.
"We are having a profound impact in stopping the flow of illegal immigration into the state of Texas," Abbott said in a recent interview, The Texas Tribune reported Monday.
Texas shares roughly 1,250 miles of border with Mexico and is home to five of the nine Border Patrol sectors along the southern border. The El Paso sector also includes 180 miles of New Mexico's border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics confirm that more migrants overall were encountered by Border Patrol agents outside of Texas each of the first three months of this year.
During the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October, Texas has on average accounted for 43% of migrant encounters, the Tribune reported, after the state accounted for roughly 59% of overall southwest migrant encounters during the 2023 fiscal year.
"The vast majority of the United States' southern border is in Texas, and because of Texas' efforts to secure the border, more migrants are moving west to illegally cross the border into other states," gubernatorial spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement.
"Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to this Biden-made crisis."
Signs that Abbott's initiatives have been impactful appeared in November, when non-Texas sectors recorded roughly 104,000 migrant encounters compared to about 87,000 in Texas' five sectors.
After the Lone Star State saw more encounters than the other border states in December, January included Texas border agents encountering fewer migrants than agents elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Crossings in Texas totaled 68,260 in January — a huge drop from the 149,806 migrants who attempted to enter the country through the state in December, Newsweek reported.
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star after President Joe Biden and his administration made it clear they had no intention of curtailing the migrant crisis at the border.
Mahaleris said Texas has allocated more than $11 billion of taxpayer money for Operation Lone Star, the Tribune reported. That money has paid for the transporting of more than 100,000 migrants to blue cities such as New York and Chicago, and placing 70,000 rolls of concertina wire along the border.
The funding also includes construction of a military base that reportedly could cost more than $400 million, according to the outlet.