00:00
Texas has spent billions on operation loans to stop illegal immigration.
00:03
But there's little evidence that actually affected the immigration cause at all
00:07
the federal government made a deal with Mexico to stop mines
00:09
before they reach the border.
00:13
Texas is still spending billions on of state dollars on immigration.
00:18
And all we see is soldiers when they could be you
00:20
know, spending this on the electrical grid,
00:22
the power when everything froze over.
00:24
Remember that? And everyone was busting out their Cobija San Marcos
00:27
and all that, the struggle was real.
00:28
Even the toilets were frozen,
00:30
they couldn't even go,
00:31
they couldn't even take a shit.
00:33
Exactly. So that is still not fixed even,
00:36
you know, public schools need funding.
00:38
But you know, I guess it's Texas.
00:40
No Pasa Nada. So essentially the US government and Texas are
00:45
spending money on immigration,
00:47
but Texas doesn't really have anything to show for it here to
00:50
talk about what Texas should have spent the money on is Fatal
00:53
Algeri from Texas Immigrant Center.
00:59
Thank you so much for having me today.
01:00
Thank you for coming on.
01:02
So, can you explain texas' operation Lone Star and how
01:06
much was actually spent on it?
01:09
Yeah. So what we're looking at is a multibillion dollar effort
01:15
coordinating between state government agencies.
01:18
I think the latest tally is about $11 billion is
01:22
is what we're seeing,
01:24
really meant for immigration enforcement as well as border
01:28
militarization. But what that really means at the end of the
01:32
day is how are we going to continue to criminalize our immigrant
01:36
population? And how is the state going to sort of supersede
01:41
federal authority? So that's what Operation Lone Star is and
01:46
that's what sort of policies that have been out there in the
01:48
headlines as of late around like SP four,
01:51
for instance, that all falls under operation Lone Star.
01:56
And would you say like operation Lone Star has worked the way
02:00
Governor Abbott intended or how has it affected migrants?
02:05
So it's a really great question because you know,
02:09
you can never really speak about intentions,
02:11
right? Of the why behind what some elected officials
02:15
choose to do? But at the end of the day,
02:17
what you're looking at right now is that Governor Abbott has been
02:20
quite successful really from a narrative standpoint,
02:24
right? Because what you're looking at also is like migrant bussing
02:28
that exists under operation Lone Star.
02:31
And it's sort of I would say more liberal jurisdictions
02:39
families, Children have been bust have,
02:43
you know, started to sort of play into the hands and
02:49
I can't speak for Governor Abbott,
02:51
but that seems to have been the intent,
02:52
right. But really at the end of the day,
02:54
it's a deterrent practice.
02:56
Like that's what you're looking at these,
02:57
these deterrent practices and whether they're happening by the federal government,
03:01
state government, have you deterrent practices do not work,
03:05
period. Like if the objective is to stem migration we have
03:11
seen now for three decades,
03:14
the harsher you become from a policy standpoint,
03:18
only equates to putting individuals and families at risk.
03:26
You're putting them in greater harm's way,
03:29
you're putting them in sort of the path of cruelty.
03:33
But these are individuals who have made the choice to migrate because
03:41
there is no other choice,
03:43
right? Like that's where you're at at the end of the
03:45
day. And so it's not gonna deter you these policies.
03:50
This grandstanding is not gonna serve as a deterrence,
03:54
but you're gonna end up being put in a scenario that is
03:58
literally life threatening. As if the migration journey already isn't
04:04
you know, life threatening enough.
04:08
like you're saying, there's so many,
04:10
so much funding, so much money has gone to all these
04:11
policies and the bussing all these,
04:14
you know, operations,
04:15
how can we make sure that the money the government is spending
04:17
is being put in the right place?
04:19
It's a great question and I think it's one that doesn't even
04:21
just apply to Texas.
04:22
You know, you have some pieces of legislation that are being
04:24
pushed through right now that are specifically sort of allowing for
04:31
not just the arrest of any individual who may look like an
04:34
immigrant and what is looking like an immigrant,
04:37
like, what does that mean?
04:39
And so what it means is you're really talking about black and
04:42
brown people. This is state sanctioned racism,
04:50
lives are on the line.
04:52
So when we're talking about where can resources be spent at the
04:57
you know, I come from a school of thought that our
05:00
elected officials should be working to advance the needs and interests of
05:05
their constituencies. And in this case,
05:08
I'd much rather see tax dollars go and,
05:12
and get spent specifically on universal representation.
05:17
So that anyone who is going through the immigration court system
05:20
has legal representation because right now,
05:23
while you have the right to access it,
05:25
you don't actually, you're not afforded a legal representative.
05:29
But if you're an individual anywhere from 2 to 5 times more
05:32
likely to find some type of relief in the immigration system,
05:36
if you have legal representation,
05:39
and if you're a family that rate goes up to about 10
05:41
10.5 times more likely,
05:43
so we could be putting it there.
05:46
But instead, we've decided to fund this sort of the prison
05:49
industrial complex. And again,
05:52
literally because most immigration and customs enforcement detention centers are,
05:58
are actually prisons because about 90% of them are,
06:01
are, are run by private prison contractors by the GEO groups
06:05
and the core civics.
06:06
So many of these policies are really just lining the pockets of
06:11
private prison contractors. Definitely.
06:13
And well, thank you so much Faisal for coming on and
06:17
breaking this down for us.
06:19
And we want to ask you where can people find you really
06:22
appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you Raices texas.org.
06:27
It's ra I ce s Texas fully spelled out.org.
06:31
You can also find us with that same handle on,
06:34
on Instagram as well.
06:36
And what we try to do there is also break down sort
06:39
of the news in the day and sort of digestible pieces.
06:42
So we would love for people to check us out there
06:45
thank you for making a space for these conversations.
Series