The state of Texas has recently confirmed the closure of a jail booking facility in Val Verde County that played a significant role in Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a controversial initiative aimed at addressing border security and immigration enforcement. This facility, which had been operational as part of the state’s crackdown on illegal immigration, was shuttered quietly last summer.
Initiated in response to the Biden administration’s immigration policies, Operation Lone Star was launched to bolster law enforcement presence along the extensive 1,250 miles of border shared between Texas and Mexico. The program saw a surge of Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and State Guard members deployed to the region, particularly as illegal border crossings escalated to unprecedented levels.
At the Val Verde facility, officers were tasked with booking migrants seeking asylum on state charges, including misdemeanor criminal trespassing and more severe human smuggling charges. Notably, many of those charged with human smuggling were young Americans, raising questions about the broader implications of these enforcement strategies.
Governor Abbott attributed the closure of the first facility in Jim Hogg County in March 2025 to the anticipated return of former President Donald Trump to the White House. However, internal booking logs indicated a different reality; the number of illegal crossings had been on a downward trend prior to the facility’s closure, with significant declines observed as Trump’s administration neared its end.
The Val Verde facility’s closure had not been publicly acknowledged until recently, despite internal records indicating no bookings had occurred since May 2025. According to DPS spokesperson Sheridan Nolen, the facility was officially closed in August 2025, coinciding with a shift in booking practices that redirected inmates to local jails.
“Thanks to increased collaboration at the state and federal levels over the last year, our border is now more secure than it has been in years,” Nolen stated. He noted that the Val Verde Temporary Processing Facility, initially used to assist overwhelmed local jails, was no longer necessary due to the reduced number of arrests.
Currently, Texas DPS is averaging nearly 100 arrests per week along the Texas-Mexico border, a stark contrast to the overwhelming numbers seen during the peak of Operation Lone Star under the Biden administration. This shift has led to the reassignment of DPS resources to focus on immigration enforcement within the interior of the state, a strategy now dubbed “Operation Lone Star 2.0.”
The state legislature has allocated $3.4 billion for border security in the current two-year budget cycle, which runs through the fall of 2025, highlighting the ongoing commitment to addressing immigration and border security issues in Texas.
