El Paso authorities are asking the Texas government for millions of dollars needed to cover the cost of jailing migrants detained at the border in the context of the state's Operation Lone Star.
Concretely, county commissioners unanimously voted to make the request, saying the funds are needed to also pay for detainee processing, housing, and medical costs. County administrator Betsy Keller said that the County Jail has housed up to 400 detainees and has a "sustained rate" of 300 detainees a day.
They also allowed County Judge Ricardo Samaniego to request that those detained by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to be taken to a state jail rather than the El Paso County Jail, according to Border Report.
The outlet explained that the operation resulted in an increased amount of jailed individuals, which also reduces space to house the U.S. Marshals Service and the consequent funding from the federal government.
"They used to be federal charges – smuggling and human trafficking — but now because of the governor's declaration, they have become state charges. Anything that's a state charge, including health and mental health, is not paid, it's part of our budget."
Judge Samaniego said the county has lost about $10 million in revenue as a result. The county is requesting $3 million it has already spent and an additional $5 million.
The Greg Abbott administration has not signaled any intention to stop the operation. In a speech at the Republican National Convention, Abbott accused President Joe Biden of "welcoming into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists," and vowed to continue busing migrants to Chicago and other sanctuary cities such as New York City and Denver, another part of Operation Lone Star.
"When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas to see the border crisis, I took the border to them," he said. "...We have continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities all across the country. Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border."
Overall, the state has seen a drop of at least 74% in illegal border crossings since March 2021, when the state's Operation Lone Star began. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Colonel Steve McCraw, said in June that the results have come at a high cost given the high expenses on personnel and equipment.
Figures have continued to drop over the past months (not only in Texas, but at the national level) following the Biden administration's executive action cracking down on asylum seeking. In fact, the current flows have decreased so much they are close to reaching the figure the government set to lift the partial ban.
Concretely, the measure determines the ban will go into effect once the seven-day average of daily encounters surpasses 2,500 and will be lifted once it drops below 1,500.
Figures were much higher when the executive action was announced, meaning the ban began immediately. But they had been dropping at the moment and the trend has exacerbated ever since, with new figures obtained by CBS News showing that over the past week the daily average of encounters reached roughly 1,650. The number for all of July currently stands at 1,800.
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