The lawsuit alleges that four migrants who were arrested under Operation Lone Star remained locked up as long as six weeks after their criminal trespassing cases were dismissed or they served their sentences.
Department of Public Safety troopers arrest three undocumented migrants as part of Operation Lone Star in Kinney County near Brackettville on Nov. 8, 2021., The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The lawyers for the migrants are seeking monetary damages. The lawsuit names the Kinney and Val Verde county sheriffs and the wardens of the Briscoe and Segovia unit state prisons. According to the lawsuit, arrests are primarily conducted by the Department of Public Safety and each county’s sheriff’s office.
As part of the program, Abbott sent National Guard members and state troopers to different parts of the Texas-Mexico border so the officers could arrest migrants crossing the border illegally and charge them with misdemeanor trespassing. Altamirano and Hernandez were arrested on Aug. 30, 2021, and the Val Verde county attorney declined to prosecute the trespassing charges against them, the lawsuit says, but both were held for 42 days after prosecutors turned down their cases.
“Texas’ cruel border politics and policies are wasteful, inflammatory, and riddled with human and civil rights abuses,” said David Donatti, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “Governor Abbott has manipulated unchecked executive power and Texas’ criminal laws to leverage control over border communities and endanger migrants. In the United States, and in Texas, the government cannot impose criminal penalties without due process of law.
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