Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) lieutenant’s recent message to citizens about ongoing Operation Lone Star efforts was clear: Troopers in the area are working relentlessly to keep the public safe.
DPS Lt. Noe Fernandez spoke about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star and the starring role the DPS is playing in that initiative during a February presentation to the Val Verde County Republican Women.
Following an introduction by the group’s president, Terri Flowers, Fernandez said, “I was born and raised here in Del Rio, graduated from Del Rio High School. I have 20 years with the DPS, 21-22 years in law enforcement. I’ve been stationed from El Paso to Austin, Eagle Pass, Del Rio. I call it ‘the little tour of Texas,’ but I’m finally back home and I’m proud to be here.”
The lieutenant waded right in and addressed concerns citizens have expressed regarding increases in smugglers transporting undocumented persons who have entered the country illegally.
“I’m sure you continue to hear the sirens, and you may think to yourself, ‘Here, again, in Del Rio? What’s happened to my town? What’s happening to my county?’ But this happens day in and day out. The time of the day, the day of the week, does not matter. The people that are using our roadways and taking advantage of the situation do not care. They are using all sorts of platforms, social media, TikTok, to recruit kids, women, adults, older women, older men, from all walks of life,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez began a series of slides showing statistics from Operation Lone Star efforts.
“So here’s some stats (as of Feb. 2): criminal arrests, in total, it’s over 24,000. I’ll explain to you guys a little more information, criminal trespass arrests, over 6,000; arrests for felony charges, over 22,000. . . since the inception of all this, which next month will be two years. Migrant apprehensions and referrals are over 348,000. Those are referrals, people that we actually apprehend and hand over to Border Patrol. . . and our bailouts, over 3,000. This is when people decide to flee from us, run into the brush, get into a crash and try to abscond,” he said.
“I want to tell you from our perspective here in Del Rio, in the past month, we’ve had seven pursuits that have gone through the city, and that is one of my biggest concerns. . .
The last thing we want is for you or your family members or friends to get hurt, so we’re trying our best to ensure that the pursuit ends before it gets to the city,” Fernandez said.
He said the DPS troopers in the area stay in close communication with each other and with their local, county and federal law enforcements partners.
Fernandez also spoke about increased interdiction efforts aimed at “stash houses,” vacant or abandoned homes where smugglers temporarily house large groups of immigrants. He also addressed increases in arrests made after stops of commercial vehicle stops.
Fernandez said a state processing facility set up outside the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office has to date processed more than 5,700 persons and currently had (as of early February) more than 500 persons in custody.
Fernandez said the Operation Lone Star initiative has challenged the DPS, but repeatedly assured the audience that the department is rising to meet those challenges.
“We’re having to do a lot of things that are outside of our ‘norm.’ When I signed up, we were the highway patrol. . . but our duties and our responsibilities have changed since all this, the migrants; everything has changed. Sometimes I feel like I’m a Border Patrol agent. In the brush. In the helicopter,” he said.
“It’s a job. It’s a task. It’s a responsibility. We always find a way to make it happen. . . It’s a commitment. Like I said, this is my hometown. This is the county that I love. We’re going to do whatever it takes to ensure that you guys are safe or at least feel safe,” he added.
Fernandez next reviewed the numbers of apprehensions by calendar year.
“I don’t want to get into too many details, but 2021, those numbers, we thought, ‘Man, what an increase from 2019.’ And if any of you all were here in 2019 when we had our first migrant crisis, 2021 blew those numbers out of the water. In 2022, we thought, are we going to get there or not, and sure enough, the numbers grew, they increased. Here we are in February 2023, already at 77,000, so it opens your eyes,” he said.
Fernandez went over some of the different initiatives being conducted as part of Operation Lone Star, including the stash house initiative, the OLS fencing initiative, the OLS criminal trespass/brush team initiatives with border prosecution units, the commercial motor vehicle initiative, the OLS mass migration response operation and the OLS bus transport initiative.
“Let’s discuss a little bit about the fencing project. Here in this county, we have 10 miles of fence. With the military department, we’ve deployed out there along Vega Verde Road, and you can see the fence, where it’s got the concertina wire on top. . . In total, 72 miles of fencing. It’s a great deterrent. And I tell people all the time, you build a 10-foot fence, somebody in Mexico’s going to build a 12-foot ladder. . . But this slows them down,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez told the group he is not overly concerned about the undocumented persons who cross the border and immediately give themselves up to law enforcement. He said he is much more worried about undocumented persons trying to evade detection by law enforcement.
Fernandez spoke to the group about the DPS initiatives in Uvalde following a deadly school shooting there in May 2022.
He also discussed Operation Lone Star’s ranch interdiction program, another initiative to catch human smugglers.
Fernandez also presented the group with up-to-date pursuit data and urged those listening to practice greater awareness while driving.
“If you’re out there on the roadways, just be careful. . .You just have to be aware of your surroundings. Check your rearview mirror. There’s so many vehicles out there, so many agencies, units that are responding to help out, set up stop sticks. Some of these guys are running police officers off the roadway. They’re trying to avoid stop sticks. It’s just incredible what they’ll do,” he said.
Fernandez showed snippets of hair-raising pursuit videos filmed from the dashboard cameras of DPS patrol units, some from chases in the local area.
Fernandez then fielded a wide variety of questions from those attending the event.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
