Texas Soldiers Say Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star Is ‘A Show’

The concertina wire strung along several miles of Texas’ border with Mexico cuts through human flesh “like a knife.”

That’s according to one Texas Army National Guard soldier, who until recently served along the border under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star.”

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States “are moving fast” when they encounter the “c-wire” after crossing the Rio Grande into Texas, said Alex, who is being identified by a pseudonym because they’re worried about retaliation from superiors.

“Especially when people are just wading through the water, and their skin is wet, it just slices right though,” Alex said.

Alex is one of a handful of soldiers who spoke to HuffPost regarding their concerns about Operation Lone Star, which since 2021 has sent state law enforcement and Texas National Guard soldiers to patrol the border. The guardsmen acknowledged they were a minority among their colleagues and that many seem to support Abbott’s mission.

But the soldiers who spoke to HuffPost said they are worried that Operation Lone Star dehumanizes migrants, diverts resources from needed areas into “political theater,” and improperly gives soldiers and state troopers sway over the application of federal immigration law — a job legally reserved for federal law enforcement.

Most of these soldiers have served in or around Eagle Pass, a popular crossing point that, in recent months,has been at the center of national headlines. Texas has put up 30 milesof concertina wire in the area, draped atop a “steel wall” of shipping containers and strung across private ranches all along the Rio Grande— sometimes against landowners’ wishes. The Supreme Court issued an interim rulinglast month saying that the U.S.