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Gov. Greg Abbott directed soldiers to the Rio Grande Valley on Monday to support U.S. Border Patrol personnel as part of his efforts to assist the Trump administration's border policies.
The soldiers departed from Fort Worth and Houston on Monday.
The statement from the governor's office explained that Abbott directed the Texas Military Department to coordinate with the Trump administration's plans.
It was a change from the Republican governor's legal battles with the Biden administration. Abbott spent the last four years testing a state's ability to enforce immigration law — at times at odds with Border Patrol.
Now with Trump in office, it appears that Operation Lone Star will be working in lock step with the federal government. "Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border," Abbott said in the statement.
The 400 soldiers were from the Texas Tactical Border Force, which was characterized in 2023 as a support force for soldiers already mobilized under Operation Lone Star. C-130s and Chinook helicopters were also deployed.
The Pentagon announced last week that it has begun deploying more than 1,500 active duty troops to various parts of the border, including in Texas.
More than 10,000 Texas National Guardsmen have been mobilized on state active-duty orders to support Abbott's border initiative.
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star almost four years ago in response to what he called "the Biden Administration's dangerous border policy." The state has since spent $11 billion of Texas taxpayer dollars to fund, with $6 billion going toward paying the guardsmen and Border Patrol personnel stationed on the border.
There are limits to what the soldiers are allowed to do, however. Soldiers are unable to act as a law enforcement under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of active military personnel to conduct civilian law enforcement activities.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised supporters that he would secure the border and proposed other harsh immigration policies, including mass deportations. During the first week of his second term, he signed executive orders calling the border crisis an "invasion."
In light of the tone of those orders, it was unclear how the military will be used on the border. Due to the federal laws currently in place, soldiers may only support the Border Patrol agents actively engaging with immigrants attempting to cross.
Abbott recently sent a letter to Congress asking for the federal government to pay the $11 billion back to Texas.
"I launched Operation Lone Star (OLS) to combat these threats to all Americans," Abbott's letter read." This success came at a cost, which fell squarely on the shoulders of Texas taxpayers but should have been the federal government’s responsibility."
The governor's office has not outlined the future of Operation Lone Star.
