Texas Spent $11 Billion on Operation Lone Star. Hinojosa Can Review It. Trump Says He Will Enforce the Border Anyway.

Texas spent about $11 billion on Operation Lone Star. The barriers are already in the ground. Roughly 1,000 related criminal cases are still pending. And on Thursday in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said that if Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa will not keep his border policies, he will enforce them himself.

That is the box the new Democratic statewide team walks into after beating Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Texas Tribune laid out what Democrats can change on immigration enforcement in Austin, and what they cannot wish away. Texas Gazette reported Trump's Thursday warning from the Oval Office.

A nation that will not control its border is not merciful. It is negligent. Scripture calls civil rulers to punish wrongdoing and protect the innocent. Illegal entry, human smuggling and drug trafficking are crimes, not kindness. Texans who voted for a secure border were asking government to do its job.

What Abbott built

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 with Department of Public Safety troopers and National Guard members aimed at human and drug smuggling. He later renewed disaster declarations that let him move resources and stiffen penalties, and he issued an executive order calling the situation an invasion and ordering state forces to return Rio Grande crossers to ports of entry.

The price tag, the Tribune reported, is about $11 billion so far. The Texas Facilities Commission earlier this year said the state had finished about 82.2 miles of barrier after lawmakers put $3.1 billion into that part of the mission. Last year's GOP Legislature approved nearly $3.4 billion for border security in the current two-year budget. Any money for the next budget cycle, which starts in the fall, has to be renewed next session.

In September, the Trump administration awarded Texas $7.5 billion in federal reimbursement for border spending during the Biden years, the Tribune reported then. In its application, the state listed more than 530,000 apprehensions, nearly 54,000 criminal arrests and the transport of nearly 120,000 migrants who had been processed and released by federal authorities. That reimbursement will sit in the revenue picture lawmakers face in January.

What Hinojosa and Johnson have said

Hinojosa has said she will review whether Operation Lone Star makes Texans safer. She has also called it "political theatre." In a September CNN interview quoted by the Tribune, she said, "We need secure borders, absolutely, but targeting hard-working long-standing members of our community is not making us more secure." She criticized state police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officers. She did not answer the Tribune's questions this week and did not raise immigration policy at Thursday's transition news conference.

Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson's campaign said he supports cracking down on drug smuggling, human trafficking and "all forms of cross-border criminal enterprise," and that Texans "should reject policy and tactics that damage our sense of decency and fracture our communities." He did not answer the Tribune's emailed questions. Dock Line has already covered what Johnson can and cannot change as attorney general on other Paxton fights, and how Democrats led the statewide races.

Conservatives should hear the soft spots. "Review" can mean an honest audit of waste, or gutting the mission while still promising "secure borders." Cooperation with federal immigration officers is not theater when federal law is being broken. Illegal presence is not legal residency.

What they can change, and what they cannot

Kristin Etter of the Texas Immigration Law Council told the Tribune a governor cannot rewrite federal immigration law, but Texas can change how it spends state money. One practical lever: stop renewing Abbott's border disaster proclamation. He has renewed it 69 times since 2021. That tool helped justify sending Guard members and troopers to the river. Ending the renewals would shrink the state mission without a new statute.

The January Legislature will have a Democratic House that has voted against this spending and a Republican Senate that remains the party's last statewide chamber stronghold. Dock Line has mapped how that divided government will work. Budget riders die in either chamber. Expect a fight, not a wipeout.

Senate Bill 4, which lets police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border, is still enforceable while litigation continues. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said so in April 2026. It did not settle the law's constitutionality. Johnson inherits Paxton's immigration docket, including more than 20 federal lawsuits Paxton's office filed. He can keep those fights, settle them or walk away. The statute and the pending cases do not vanish because the letterhead changes.

Amrutha Jindal of Lone Star Defenders told the Tribune her group has represented about 20,000 people arrested under the mission on trespassing, smuggling and some illegal-entry charges, with about 1,000 cases still pending. "The program could end in name, but it wouldn't end in practice in terms of the cases playing out," she said.

Trump's warning

Trump told reporters Thursday he is "sure" the new governor will want security on the Texas border. "And if they don't continue my policies, I will," he said, according to Mediaite quotes carried by Texas Gazette. Border security is first a federal duty. A Democratic Capitol in Austin does not repeal that.

The honest forecast is not that Operation Lone Star vanishes overnight, and not that nothing changes. Hinojosa can refuse to renew disaster orders. Democrats can try to starve the next budget. Johnson can drop lawsuits. Pending prosecutions and SB 4 remain. The barrier miles stand. And a Republican president has already said he will fill any gap Texas opens.

Christians who pray for those in authority should pray for courage and clarity: punish smugglers and traffickers, welcome lawful immigrants, stop rewarding illegal entry, and stop spending billions without measuring results. Soft words about "theatre" do not secure a ranch road at midnight. Measure the deployments, the seizures, the waste and the law. Keep what works. Scrap what does not.

Hero photo: The U.S.-Mexico border fence near Brownsville, Texas. File photo. Operation Lone Star has cost Texas about $11 billion since 2021. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress, Public Domain.