Absent a robust federal response, Texas has attempted to enforce what it can of its 1,241-mile border, by far the longest of the four border states’. (Arizona, which has the second-longest southern border, shares just 372.5 miles with Mexico.) Abbott likes to talk about Operation Lone Star’s high number of apprehensions and detentions, repeatedly pointing to his administration’s emphasis on “catch & jail” rather than catch and release. But the two approaches are often more similar than they may seem: Problems and bureaucratic snags reportedly have plagued Operation Lone Star since its inception, leading to repeated releases of jailed migrants after an initial holding period in already overwhelmed facilities. As of the end of January, Operation Lone Star had led to the arrest of more than 2,500 migrants on trespassing charges. All of them were men — women and children are handed directly to federal agents, where they are often released under the Biden administration’s liberal immigration policies — and only about 900 were still being held in state jails. Many of those 900 detainees can feasibly expect to be released: Texas statutes mandate that someone detained for trespassing must be released 15 to 30 days after arrest if prosecutors fail to file charges in time.

As a result, Operation Lone Star has managed to detain only a relatively small number of illegal aliens, while many more have been released by court orders. In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that just 3 percent of the program’s arrests have led to convictions; of the 170 cases that were resolved, “about 70% were dismissed, declined, or otherwise dropped.”