The Latest Breaking News from Operation Lone Star

While the state guarantees law enforcement officers, like Department of Public Safety troopers, a $500,000 death benefit for their families if they die on duty, National Guard troops who stand shoulder to shoulder with those DPS officers on Operation Lone Star don’t have the same benefit.

Law enforcement officers who serve on Operation Lone Star get a $500,000 death benefit for their survivors if they die on duty. But National Guard troops on the same mission don’t get a dime from the state for their families if they die.

State spending on cops and tech at the Texas border has increased ninefold in a decade, now set to reach $4.6 billion over the next two years.

The agency seeks more authority to nab trespassers and others in the state.

EAGLE PASS, Texas — The patrol arrived around sunset and entered a stretch of rolling hills dense with cactus, sage and towering carrizo cane. The way into the property was an unlit, narrow dirt road pockmarked with potholes, near a hydroelectric power plant.

The service member is expected to recover.

State police often rely on federal immigration officials to lock up migrants on state trespassing charges, according to a new complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The collaboration contradicts federal and Texas officials’ attacks on each other’s immigration policies.

A document obtained by The Texas Tribune and Army Times shows that the Vietnam-era M113 armored personnel carriers will be sent to 10 locations along the Texas-Mexico border.

The historic pace of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fueled Republicans’ focus on the crisis, but despite the efforts of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, encounters in Texas have increased.

A governor’s military powers are often not discussed as part of the election process, in favor of other prominent issues like education and taxes. But with Operation Lone Star in plain view, voters may have more questions this election.

On Thursday, officials with the Texas Military Department acknowledged that the payroll system they used for the mission has withheld too little in federal taxes from service members’ paychecks.