Texas National Guardsmen and Department of Public Safety troopers were left to string up barbed wire along the northern bank of the Rio Grande this week in an effort to dissuade an invasion. 

The law enforcement officers were to create a barrier to physically prevent a flood of migrants from climbing out of the Rio Grande and entering the United States illegally, as Breitbart News reported.

The effort was part of Operation Lone Star, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered with the deployment of the Texas Border Force earlier this week in an effort to help block or prevent migrant crossings.

Border Crossings

Breitbart Texas reporters who went to the border city of Matamoros, which is located in the state of Tamaulipas saw a concerning sight. There, hundreds of migrants have been attempting to cross the Rio Grande and are only barely held back.

Migrants have been seen taking to the water and wading across the river on many occasions; however, some of them have been forced to turn back since Texas officials have sealed earthen pathways that continue north from the river.

In some instances, the migrants gave up, turned around, and proceeded several yards downstream in an attempt to locate another location to get out of the river before turning themselves in to officials of the United States Border Patrol.

A second attempt was made by some of the migrants to make their way via a different location two hundred yards downstream from the previous one; however, they were once again unsuccessful in ascending up.

On the Mexican side of the river, officers from Mexico's National Migration Institute shouted at the migrants and used a bullhorn to command them to cease moving forward. They were located on the Mexican side of the river. The personnel in command of immigration made a threat to deport the migrants but were not effective in their endeavors.

From the Governor

Abbott's office announced that he has renewed the border security declaration on May 12, the same day that Title 42 expired, and issued a press release saying that the Texas National Guard are" continuing to work together to secure the border; stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas; and prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal behavior between ports of entry."

"Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to over 373,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 28,000 criminal arrests, with more than 25,000 felony charges reported. In the fight against fentanyl, Texas law enforcement has seized over 402 million lethal doses of fentanyl during this border mission.

"Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration's refusal to secure the border. Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden's open border policies.

Abbott said Monday that the deployment of the newly minted Texas Tactical Border Force to the Texas-Mexico border is in response to the growing crisis, enhancing Texas's "unprecedented border security efforts" to stem illegal immigration."

“With the ending of Title 42 on Thursday, President Biden is laying down the welcome mat to people across the entire world, but Texas is deploying our new Texas Tactical Border Force,” said Governor Abbott.

"The Texas National Guard is loading Blackhawk helicopters and C-130s and deploying specially trained soldiers for the Texas Tactical Border Force, who will be deployed to hotspots all along the border to help intercept and repel large groups of migrants trying to enter Texas illegally.”