What's next for Operation Lone Star?

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- Amid a relative lull in border crossings, Texas lawmakers are considering how to proceed with Operation Lone Star, the state's massive and unilateral border enforcement efforts.

The Texas Senate's Committee on Border Security heard hours of testimony from experts and stakeholders Thursday, highlighting the impact of the operation and the continuing needs to expand and take care of its personnel.

“We have paid an incredible price for the deterrence that we've gained,” State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury said. “If we retract from that, the cost of regaining that deterrence will be higher than the price we're paying for maintaining that deterrence now."

That "incredible price" is at least $11 billion since Gov. Greg Abbott began Operation Lone Star in 2021. Lawmakers intend to continue and expand the efforts, regardless of federal immigration policy or relative migrant encounters.

Just this week, Texas troops constructed razor wire fencing on the border of -- not Mexico, but New Mexico. It's a novel move for Operation Lone Star to construct barriers between another state. But while Texas migrant encounters have been dropping, they've been rising in New Mexico. Lawmakers hope to prevent migrants from crossing into other states then coming to Texas.

“We're making people go another way,” Birdwell said. “They still might get back here across the New Mexico border or the Oklahoma border."

This summer, U.S. Border Patrol saw the fewest migrant encounters in Texas since January 2021. They stopped nearly 60,000 people in August. Major General Thomas Suelzer told lawmakers Thursday that Operation Lone Star has apprehended more than half a million people since its inception, decreasing illegal crossings by 85%.

Lawmakers also grappled with staffing -- OLS has involved more than 13,000 people and both National Guard and Department of Public Safety personnel. Col. Steve McCraw expressed concern over trooper vacancies -- currently more than 500 positions -- that cause border operations to strain resources across the state.

“In an ideal scenario we'll be properly staffed in the every region of the state, and we can move away from deployments,” said Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw.

While challenges remain and uncertainty over federal policy looms ahead of the presidential election, Texas shows no signs of scaling down border operations. Though, there is no telling how big of an investment lawmakers may make when they reconvene next year.

“How do we get better?” McCraw said. “(We're) not backing off, so that they are deterred... In the event we get another surge of migrants flowing into our community, that they're deterred from coming into Texas.”