Facing sex discrimination claims, Texas begins jailing migrant women under border crackdown
Operation Lone Star originally targeted single men suspected of crossing the border illegally in mass trespassing arrests, but some claimed that not arresting women violated equal protection laws.
BY JOLIE MCCULLOUGH JULY 26, 20233 HOURS AGO
Facing sex discrimination lawsuits for targeting men under the state’s border security crackdown, Texas has begun putting migrant women in state prisons, too.
Since last week, women arrested under Gov. Greg Abbott’s yearslong Operation Lone Star have been sent to a state prison facility in Edinburg, prison and state police officials confirmed. By Tuesday, 25 women, most accused only of trespassing, were being held at the Lopez State Jail, which typically houses men convicted of low-level crimes.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Amanda Hernandez said officials had cleared out one building in the facility to house up to 200 females.
It’s been two years since state troopers began arresting migrants en masse in response to record-high levels of Texas-Mexico border crossings. Texas can’t enforce federal immigration laws, but Abbott skirted the restriction by ordering state police to jail people suspected of illegally crossing the border on misdemeanor trespassing charges.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/26/women-arrests-texas-border-operation-lone-star/
