Nice to Be Back: Thoughts on this Moment in the U.S. Historical Context and the Texas Political Hellscape (what could be more fun?)

On the eve of Election Day, November 8, 2022, I am neither hopeful nor despairing. We get the democracy we deserve; if turnout is not robust, what do we say? What we can we say? If election results denial is the ploy in Republican led districts, what does this signal for the nation? Are people aware that that dangerous precedent has been set and that it is very much a sign of how precarious the fate of democracy is in the United States of America, now so ironically, ruefully named?

No one who has studied the history of the U.S., let alone the world, of the past hundred years or so, should be surprised that we find ourselves at the current juncture as a nation, let alone a world. Democracy may not be the easiest form of choosing leaders (and in a democracy, they should be representatives, not merely “leaders” which can be turned into “rulers” a little too easily), but until something better comes along, it is or should be the fairest method. Nevertheless, the democracies of Greece and Rome were short-lived and the U.S.’s is still a historical blip in the timeline of nation states. It can be gone tomorrow.

Perhaps it is an awful reality that we are faced with. That the U.S. is not so very different from Weimar Era Germany is often deemed hyperbole, but it really isn’t. We have the potential to vote away civil rights, human rights, and environmental gains overnight. We have the potential to hand over power to a party bent on crushing lives en masse: the poor, the minorities, the elderly, the non-binary. Indeed, anyone who doesn’t conform to some faux-idealized 1950s model of the American ubermensch is a target for legislation designed to strip away already endangered rights to vote, to access to health, education, and welfare. 

We don’t have to look far to see why. The Republican Party has, for the past forty years, mounted a long game, a war on non-white, non-hetero male people. To be sure, there have been and are, women, people of color, and yes, gay Republicans. How many of these genuinely believe in the Party’s militancy is difficult to gauge, but if Herschel Walker and Marjorie Taylor Greene are indicators, there are enough to sway votes. That none of their arguments are based in sound reasoning, much less informed decision making is beside the point. 

The GOP capitalizes on fear and has gained its formidable power despite its numbers, has been part of the playbook since at least Nixon’s time, but more realistically, at least going back to the immediate period following the Second World War. McCarthyism set the tone for sowing seeds of distrust between Americans that Reagan would capitalize on in 1980, painting the poor and very often, Black people as “welfare queens” and entire swaths of the nation living off of “handouts”. It was Reagan (and his team, let’s not do the injustice of ignoring the Karl Roves of the party) who proclaimed that government isn’t the solution, but the problem, despite the fact that the policies and social safety nets established in the 1930s were and remained a) popular and b) effective in ensuring wealth equality, more social equitability, and frankly, better access to education and healthcare than what would follow in the wake of the ascendancy of Reagan Republicans.

We don’t need to look too far afield that the rise of Newt Gingrich in the early nineties followed quickly on the heels of the election of Bill Clinton to office. Gingrich, a junior congressman at the time, represented an even more vocal and extreme cadre forming in the party that would metastasize into the Tea Party and latterly, the even more vocal and violent far right extremists we see today. It is a hop, skip, and a jump to see how well, the extremists have leveraged power. Again, we must bear in mind that numerically, most of the country and registered voters do not identify as Republican. It is this alone that should put everyone on notice that democracy in America is in its twilight.

None of this is to paint the Democratic Party as a victim, by the way. At the greatest point of a period when the parties were more or less equal in numbers, and at times even, when the Democrats held greater numbers in office, the outright ignorance of the dems to not recognize their own laziness and complacency is a damning indictment of why the Republicans gained clout. At a number of junctures, people could be forgiven for recognizing that there was no major difference between the two major parties in substance, when it came to military expenditure, atrocious foreign relations, and the exacerbation of “tough on crime” legislation (see also Nixon’s “War on Drugs” which continues to wreak havoc across the country, and for that matter, the world). 

However, a funny thing happened around the turn of the millennium and I don’t mean the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The election to George W. Bush’s first term was the most salient aspect of the shift in the balance of power. Had those attacks not happened, it would have been easier, perhaps, for most voters to see how feeble the Republican Party was in terms of a lack of a meaningful vision or values. That said, following the attacks, Bush and his party were able to capitalize on fear-mongering and expand executive powers beyond any reasonable limit. Concomitantly, Fox News received a huge boost from the right and swiftly became the primary source where many, mostly middle-aged and older (and again, I cannot stress this enough, white) voters got their news. It is not overselling to say that Al-Quaida gave the Republicans a gift that has continued giving. Racist fear, a sense of religious persecution, anti-immigrant hatred, and hatred of all Others fueled the intransigence of the party. 

And the Democrats still didn’t get it. As much as admire the woman and I don’t disagree with the sentiment, when Michelle Obama said “they go low, we go high”, this overlooks the depth of rot and unreason that was then and now continues to drive the Republican Party. Yes, some can argue - and I don’t completely disagree - that Hillary Clinton might well have continued a lot of deplorable foreign policy; she may well have continued to play the Grand Game of Appeasing Corporate America; however, I also am convinced that her domestic policies would have largely moved toward a (slightly, remember that we are dealing with one of the ultimate insiders in U.S. politics) more progressive direction. Instead, what we got was, well, what we got, with the additional benefit of the next move in the GOP’s long game; stacking both the Supreme Court and lower courts, installing yes-men and women at all levels of the Administration, and in what appears to be haphazard fashion (but you’d have to be a fool to believe that), promoting the most extreme, vocal and vociferous politicians in the nation’s history. That last may sound like an exaggeration, but I don’t believe so. 

Perhaps not since the twenties have we seen so many appointed or elected to office who have so little regard for the rule of law, legislative protocol, or even understanding of what they are supposed to be doing in office. A man stayed in the highest office of the country who was impeached - twice. Repeatedly, his supporters and followers were able to spin the argument that what he was accused of didn’t matter. The Republican response to almost every scandal from that person on down to current figures like Herschel Walker, like Ron Desantis, like Greg Abbott has been, “eh, no big deal.”

This is far shrewder than replying with the usual mock indignation. That might be the first line of defense, but the second is very much the shoulder shrug. When you have a party in lockstep to not only denying an insurrection, but that is now supporting the violence at all levels of discourse and action, with no regard for lives endangered or lost, with indifference and outright mockery, then it’s obvious that we have passed into a wholly new phase of collapse. 

On their own, if the party hacks were the only people who were “acting out” as childhood developmental psychiatrists might put it, we might assume that they could be easily dismissed and voted out of office. However, they are not”on their own”; they are in office because significant numbers of voters put them in those positions. Were those constituencies manipulated by rhetoric and false narratives? Sure. But why would people fall for rhetoric and false narratives in the first place? Quite simply because there is a dearth of thinking for oneself. It would be simplistic to say that education has declined so much in the U.S. to say that is the reason why extremists have gained so much footing; many people around my age (older or younger) had the same education as I and apparently, our conclusions about what matters have led to opposite courses of action.

I know that many of my contemporaries - both older and younger - derive most of their information from Fox News, if not other, more extreme “conservative” outlets. The metrics for the influence of these media sources are well-documented, but it isn’t just the Boomer and senior voting blocs that have thrown in with this more radical iteration of the Grand Old Party. I am reminded of too many discussions with Latinx brothers and sisters who voted proudly for the previous president (and GW Bush before him), of more than a few people of color who did the same (and some who are immigrants) who supported the previous administration because of their stance on immigration. Tough on crime, tough on immigrants, and ramping up police forces all play to the fears and anger of a population that doesn’t know or know how to do serious research. This isn’t blaming the victim; it’s simply that this is how the system has been, well, gerrymandered to keep people from genuinely exploring and getting involved beyond their immediate concerns. It’s all about control.

Tomorrow, Texas will make some decisions about women’s rights to abortion, about education, about getting rid of a malignancy of ignorance and hatred toward asylum seekers and very often, legal immigrants. Beto O’ Rourke has taken to the road to meet with Texans face to face, even (especially) with those who disagree with him. Where Abbott has continued to traffic in stunt-politics that have misused funds to “prove a point”, O’ Rourke has repeatedly put forth action plans to actually address the immigration problems. Indeed, I am surprised at the number of ideas he has proffered in a number of areas that seem so obvious and achievable that I have to ask; how come Abbott and his ilk don’t try to come up with similar ideas? 

Okay, I joke! I am not wondering at all. Abbott and every Republican in the state frankly don’t give a shit about solutions to immigration, to repairing and shoring up our infrastructures (including our all-too-well publicized electric grid), or to actually addressing educational reform or wealth disparity. Hahahaha! Like that would happen!

It’s far easier to simply profit from continuing to divide the population by fear and hatred, stay in power by supporting gerrymandering, and of course, legislate the harshest and most punitive measures against access to safe abortions and by extension, female heathcare. Oh, and education? Better to just ban book and excise any history that makes white people uncomfortable. 

I actually know people who think Abbott is doing a great job. They’re right. He has done and continues to do a great job of turning Texas into one of the finest examples of a fascist state since, oh, I dunno, Italy in the pre-war years? 

“Oh, but John, aren’t you being harsh? Why, look at how robust Texas’ economy is!” Sure, the usual people profit greatly from that economy. But what about where we are in education? How about crime?

Let’s start with education: 36th on Forbes’ list with a quality rank of 35, a safety rank of 41, and total score of 46.90. “The $1.8 trillion Texas economy is the second biggest in the U.S. behind only California”, ranking third for “economics climate” and first for growth prospects. Thanks to lax regulations, Texas serves as base for 102 of the 1000 largest public and private companies in the U.S. However, consider the education rate among the labor supply: “Only 84% of adults have a high school degree, which is the second-lowest among the states.”(1)

However, Forbes does not take, from what I can see, a major factor in its sources. The Texas Educational Agency (TEA) released its first ratings in three years claiming that “18% of high-poverty campuses were rated an A, continuing to prove that demographics do not equal destiny” (2). Hold my beer.

Texas Scorecard caught the strategy behind all this a day after TEA released that report (which I do recommend you look at). The application of “Not Rated”/NR to removes the very rating to failing schools the A-F rating system exists to quantify. If you look at TEA’s report, schools that score below a C are labeled “Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365” which “authorizes the use of the ‘Not Rated’ label if the education commissioner determines it would be ‘inappropriate’ to assign an A-F rating because circumstances make performance indicators “difficult to measure or evaluate.” (3)

The TEA refrained from rating schools in 2020 and 2021, owing to COVID, but it is apparent that TEA cherry picked data and using SB 1365 as a mechanism for padding results. Given the Forbes report (which I consider generous, but I really do need to see first hand what their sources are), it’s difficult to square the improvements cited by TEA with where the state is. 

There are additional discrepancies and the TEA’s grading process is significantly complicated to ensure that “grade inflation” is baked into the results. Here, see for yourself.

So, if the figures are suspect and things are not so rosy for education in terms of schools and their districts and the students served, guess what is? Salaries of School District executives. Again, check it out.

Wealth disparity/Income inequality

Remember that figure from Forbes about the Texas economy? Let’s see who isn’t benefitting from it. Any guesses? 

Let’s go.

From the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University’s Urban Edge report (June 19, 2020), citing a WalletHub study, Texas is 3rd for poverty rate, 1st in Homeless rate, and 1st in share of unsheltered homeless. The population suffering the most? Black people. 

“…the poverty rate gap between white and Black Houstonians is 16.4% — three times as many Black residents live below the poverty line as whites. Overall, the poverty rate gap — which WalletHub used in determining its rankings — in Texas is 12% (85 versus 20%) and 13% for the entire U.S. (9% versus 22%)” (4) The WalletHub report referenced may be found here.

From Every Texan (formerly Center for Public Policy Priorities) this past September: “According to the SPM (Supplemental Poverty Measure), Texas has higher rates of both childhood and adult poverty than the national average. Texas’ supplemental poverty rate average for 2019-=2021 is 10.4% (3 million people) which is higher than the national average of 9.6%. The rate for Texas children living in poverty is slightly higher than the national average — at 10% — for the same time period, making it the 8th highest in the country.” (5) The entire report is worth a read, but the takeaway at the conclusion targets what needs to be done to reverse the trends:

“…the Texas Legislature must enact policies that will eliminate economic disparities and create equitable opportunities for every Texan. This means that legislators must equitably fund schools, expand social service programs such as Medicaid, and provide better funding to existing programs to lift people out of poverty and improve economic conditions for all.” (5)

Of course, Texas Republicans oppose Medicaid expansion. In a state that leads the country in uninsured (18% of Texans), Republicans kill legislation to expand the program in lockstep. This is of a piece for the party that, going back a decade (Rick Perry, then governor, deemed the Affordable Care Act “a criminal act”), despises anything that might reduce costs to constituents where healthcare is concerned. From today’s (November 7) Texas Tribune, State Senator Nathan Johnson watched as his bill to expand Medicaid died in chamber. The bill had been framed in such a way that it was open-enough so that Republicans could craft it any way they chose. Johnson, naively I think, assumed that this would be a commonsense piece of legislation that would get bipartisan support. Only one Republican voted for the bill (Lyle Larson, San Antonio). The amendment failed, 80 to 68.(6)

Mind you, 69% of Texans support Medicaid expansion, but proving that a little heartlessness isn’t enough, Texas Republican leadership continues to deny their citizens what they want.

Quoted in the same Texas Tribune article, Anne Dunkelberg, a healthcare policy analyst notes:

“Anything related to Medicaid expansion is “DOA with Abbott and Patrick,” … “There’s a very strict set of marching orders and they have nothing to do with analysis of potential impacts and facts.” 

Both Abbott and Patrick have made opposition to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion part of their political personas.

When Abbott was the state’s attorney general in 2010, he drew national attention by filing a lawsuit to get the ACA thrown out. After he became governor, he led another lawsuit to overturn the health care law.”(6)

Crime

To hear tell of it, all Texas cities are on fire because of liberal commies and/or their illegal immigrant allies. That’s why More Guns for Greater Peace is the mandate of the Lone Star State and that may be the only bipartisan element among the polity. However, crime overall is another area where Republicans are at best, laissez-faire, and at worst, exploiters of worst-case scenarios to terrify voters into keeping them in office. Never mind that their representatives offer no solutions and hide behind “Blue Lives Matter” fustian. Do they believe that? Probably not. Probably, Republicans don’t care as long as Blue Lives keep Black Lives from mattering.

First, let’s look at what crimes are committed where. All too often, politicians focus on murder and violent crime. They also tend to ignore that the crime rate has actually gone down since the seventies (and this, despite a growing population). They also ignore the place of mental healthcare availability, genuinely rehabilitative programs as opposed to mere incarceration and punishment, and nuances within the various categories that fall under the rubric of “crime”. To hear most politicians speak on crime, they lump everything together so that a person arrested for possession of a drug is, in their eyes, equal to a murderer or rapist. Home invasion? Of course, it’s those invaders crossing our borders (also ignoring the fact that immigrants account for less than 0.5% of crimes - any crime 0 in the U.S.); but no, to look at crime means acknowledging that law enforcement is imperfect at best, corrupt at worst, and that if there is improvement, it’s because any politician running for office is, say it with me, “tough on crime” (most often GOP candidates, but here is one time when Dems can be just as truculent and hypocritical).

Types of crimes in Texas 

From the Gale Law Group, the most common crimes committed in Texas are (in order): drugs, theft, aggravated assault, burglary, and robbery (as distinct from burglary because it is considered a violent crime; i.e., the crime involves physical contact with the victim, often incurring a violent interaction).(7)

Crime rates

Overall crime rates have gone down, but violent crime in Texas has gone up. I really recommend downloading the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Crime in 2020 report (https://www.dps.texas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/crimereports/20/2020cit.pdf). (8)

The overall crime rate declined by 4% and property crime by 5.9%, but violent crime increased by 6.6%. It gets more interesting as we drill down a bit.

The highest/sharpest increase was seen in murder by an increase of 35%. Aggravated assault went up by 15% and accounted for 65% of violent crime in Texas in 2020. To be sure, violent crime spiked across the country as we went into lockdown due to the COVID pandemic, but some are making the case that violent crime is still on the uptick in Texas.

Interestingly, during this same period, the rate of reported rapes declined by 10%, and robbery declined by 8%.

According to the FBI report, Texas is fifteenth highest in the country for crime overall. Admittedly, this data is pending update and it came during an exceptional time, but to be sure, it doesn’t change the substance of the argument that Texas is in the upper percentile of the country where crime is concerned. 

It’s difficult to make the claim that Texas is doing something right. We have the most punitive measures in place, particularly for formerly incarcerated and the prison to homeless back to prison is designed to maintain recidivism. There are few opportunities for many incarcerated to improve their lot. Plus, prisons, particularly private prisons, are big business. They also foster cultures of distrust, racial division, and frankly, are designed to punish as opposed to rehabilitate. Thus, you can maintain a steady-state of crime statistics (that reported rapes and robbery declined in 2020 may actually be due to the then in-effect lockdown). 

According to the Texas DPS report, the trends are that violent crime is increasing, but/and property crime decreasing. The report notes a 2.8% drop in crime overall. However, given the extraordinary circumstances, it seems difficult to argue that these trends are continuing to hold.  

However, if we give the report the benefit of the doubt, it leads to one last damning conclusion about our state’s leadership; the idea that hordes of illegal immigrants are wreaking havoc across the state. In a word, this is bullshit.(8)

By now, it’s obvious that Operation Lone Star was Greg Abbott’s greatest political stunt and waste of resources to date. And that’s saying something. Fact checked repeatedly, it doesn’t take much to smell his and his cronies’ lies like farts in an elevator.

But even before the launch of OLS, the claims made by Texas leadership were seen for what they are. I’ll say it again: bullshit. However, that doesn’t stop the project from being, sigh, popular with Texans. Why? Because there’s a whole lot of people who want to believe bullshit and don’t realize that upwards of $4 billion has been wasted on a stunt that backed up and damaged the national supply chain, wasted the time of National Guard troops (and it seems also “forgot” to withhold payroll taxes, leaving troops to fend for themselves in resolving the issues with the IRS - so much for honoring service people), and didn’t even accomplish what it was purportedly set up to do; arrest drug traffickers, human traffickers, and violent criminals. 

There is too much fact-checking for me to regurgitate (the Marshall Project has done stunning work in this regard) but one thing stands out (among others that should be read and committed to memory): 

“A year into Operation Lone Star, Abbot touted a reduction in migrant apprehensions during an interview with the conservative news site Breitbart. He said the decrease showed that the operation was working.

“Statement: “Working collaboratively with local law enforcement, we have now been able to cut in half the number of apprehensions of people coming across the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. … The bottom line is the cartels have realized it’s a money-losing proposition for them to try to cross the border in Texas.” — Abbott, Breitbart, March 17, 2022

“What Happened: Abbott correctly stated that the number of people caught entering the Rio Grande sector, which includes 19 counties in South Texas, fell by about 46% after the start of the operation. In March 2021, Border Patrol apprehended 62,685 migrants. A year later, the apprehension numbers in that region had dropped to 44,073. But Abbott’s statement failed to acknowledge that the number of people Border Patrol agents took into custody across the state remained at its highest level in at least two decades, averaging about 110,381 a month since the operation launched. DPS has claimed reductions in migrant apprehensions as a sign of the operation’s success and also, at times, said such decreases were something over which the state’s efforts had little control. In November, agency officials told the news organizations that DPS defined success as fewer migrants coming across the border. They later said a decline in apprehensions is not considered a measure of success because many factors can come into play, including policy decisions in Washington or an increase in the number of migrants seeking to surrender to Border Patrol.”(9)

Conclusion (for now)

Texas is one of the prime examples of where we are as a nation, as a people. I fear for the Republic, but I don’t want to make any prognostications until after the mid-terms. Even then, politics remains a sucker’s bet with smart money on the dumbest asses. That could be taken as the utmost in cynicism. No one has ever sold the American people too short on doing the right thing and at the same time, the electorate has proven me wrong. But in states like this one where bullshit and ballyhoo reign supreme, the candidates are possessed of rodentlike intelligence; they know how to scare the population, divide the already marginalized and generate enough hate and fear to stay in office. I almost feel like the Republican Furies will descend and rend the likes of Beto to shreds. 

Abbott is likely to win. I suspect many local elections will go to GOP candidates and living in this state will grow increasingly intolerable. I can’t see staying much longer, anyway. My boot heels have longed to be wandering again, but in the meantime, that doesn’t stop me from observing up close the folly of the Lone Star’s leadership. 

Sources/Resources

1. Morad, Renee. “States with the Best Public School Systems.” Forbes. https://www3.forbes.com/business/states-with-the-best-public-school-systems-ifs-vue-wnb/. 

2. “TEA Releases 2022 A-F Accountability Ratings.” https://tea.texas.gov/about-tea/news-and-multimedia/news-releases/news-2022/tea-releases-2022-a-f-accountability-ratings. 8/15/2022.

3. Anderson, Erin. “Texas Education Agency Replaces Failing School Grades with ‘Not Rated’.”Texas Scorecard. https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-education-agency-replaces-failing-school-grades-with-not-rated/. August 16, 2022.

4. Olin, Andy. “Texas Economy Ranks Near the Top for Racial Equality in a Nation with Pervasive Wealth Inequality”. Kinder Institute for Urban Research. https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/texas-economy-ranks-near-top-racial-equality-nation-pervasive-wealth-inequality. June 19, 2020.

5. Rayo-Garza, Coda. “New Census Data Shows Increasing Economic Inequality”. Every Texan. https://everytexan.org/2022/09/15/new-census-data-shows-increasing-economic-inequality/. 9/15/2022.

6. Krisberg, Kim and Leffler, David. “Why Texas Republicans Still Oppose Medicaid Expansion”. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/07/texas-medicaid-expansion-republicans/amp/. November 7, 2022.

7. “The Top Five Crimes Committed in the State of Texas”. The Gale Law Group. https://galelawgroup.com/top-5-crimes-committed-in-the-state-of-texas/.

8. Texas Department of Public Safety. Crime in 2020. (https://www.dps.texas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/crimereports/20/2020cit.pdf

9. Kriel, Lomi and Trevizo, Perla (ProPublica and The Texas Tribune), Calderon, Andrew Rodriguez (The Marshall Project). “Reality Check: Seven Times Texas Leaders Misled the Public About Operation Lone Star.” The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/04/27/reality-check-seven-times-texas-leaders-misled-the-public-about-operation-lone-star. 4/27/2022.

Additional reading/resources

I could build this out to an unbending list of articles, data sources, and more, but just to cite a few, The Marshall Project, ProPublica, and others have done remarkable fact-checking and analysis on the Texas political hellscape. Various journalists and their platforms deserve recognition like the Austin Statesman, the Houston Chronicle, The Texas Tribune, and Reform Austin. 

Following are other articles and reports I used but didn’t quote. They should prove informative to anyone wanting to dig deeper into the morass of where Texas is currently, like a mastodon in a tar pit, stuck. Perhaps, we’ll see change. One hopes for the better.

Kriel, Lomi and Trevizo, Perla (ProPublica and The Texas Tribune), Calderon, Andrew Rodriguez (The Marshall Project). “Texans Spend Billions on Border Operations. What Do They Get in Return?”The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/04/18/texas-border-operations-abbott-taxpayer-history. April 18, 2022.

Kriel, Lomi and Trevizo, Perla (ProPublica and The Texas Tribune), Calderon, Andrew Rodriguez (The Marshall Project). “Texas Border Operation’s Largest Share of Arrests: Trespassing on Private Property”. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/04/04/texas-border-operation-s-largest-share-of-arrests-trespassing-on-private-property. April 4, 2022.

Kriel, Lomi and Trevizo, Perla (ProPublica and The Texas Tribune), Calderon, Andrew Rodriguez (The Marshall Project). “Texas Says Its Multi-Billion Border Operation is Working: The Evidence Tells a Different Story.” The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/03/21/texas-says-its-multi-billion-dollar-border-operation-is-working-the-evidence-tells-a-different-story. March 21, 2022.

Rouner, Jef. “Texas Cities and Residents Struggle with Income Inequality”. Reform Austin. https://www.reformaustin.org/texas-legislature/texas-cities-and-residents-struggle-with-income-inequality/amp/.

Stebbins, Samuel. “How Income Inequality in Texas Compares to Other States.” 24/7 Wall St. https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/how-income-inequality-in-texas-compares-to-other-states/article_f5a9f679-3574-5fae-bf22-eb5fedec7f19.html. October 17, 2021.

Strickland, Patrick. “As Greg Abbott Brags of Turning Back Migrants at the Border, Operation Lone Star is in Hot Water”. The Dallas Observer. https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/as-greg-abbott-brags-of-turning-back-migrants-at-border-operation-lone-stars-in-hot-water-14393672. July 12, 2022.

Strickland, Patrick. “Problems Just Keep Mounting for Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star”. The Dallas Observer. https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/problems-just-keep-mounting-for-gov-greg-abbotts-operation-lone-star-14995179. October 10, 2022.

Trevizo, Perla. “Justice Department is investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights violations”. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/06/operation-lone-star-doj-investigation-abbott/. July 6, 2022.

The Texas Tribune’s Operation Lone Star Page: https://www.texastribune.org/series/operation-lone-star/.