Texas’ latest effort to deter migrants is a billboard campaign in Mexico, Central America

Gov. Abbott speaks at a press conference Thursday in Eagle Pass where he unveiled state-sponsored billboards the state is putting up in Central and South America to deter migrants from coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. (Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune)

---

EAGLE PASS — Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday announced a new campaign of installing billboards in Central America and Mexico with messages about sexual assault and Texas’ border enforcement efforts — an effort to deter migrants from trying to enter the country illegally.

The state began erecting dozens of billboards this week, Abbott said. A sampling of six billboards behind Abbott at a news conference had messages like: “Stop, if you cross the border illegally into Texas, you will be jailed,” and “Your wife and daughter will pay for the trip with their bodies. Coyotes lie. Don’t put your family at risk.”

“They inform potential illegal immigrants about the reality of what will happen to them if they try to enter Texas illegally,” Abbott said. “This is tough medicine.”

The public service campaign — with the messages in several languages including Chinese, Russian and Spanish, according to Abbott — is the state’s latest move to try stopping migrants from crossing the border into Texas. Abbott estimated the billboard campaign will cost roughly $100,000.

The state has also built sections of border wall, installed concertina wire along the U.S.-Mexico border on the Rio Grande riverbank and dispatched thousands of Department of Public Safety troopers who have arrested migrants on criminal trespassing charges.

The border crackdown, called Operation Lone Star, has cost more than $11 billion to date.