Texas Deploys 10,000 State Troopers and National Guard as Migrant Caravan Heads North

Special Correspondent

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Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott sent 10,000 state troopers and National Guard units to the U.S.-Mexico border, his office told Border Report on Monday. This order comes as roughly 3,000 migrants make their way through Mexico with the intention of reaching the U.S.

The forces deployed by Abbott are part of "Operation Lone Star," an effort his office describes as a unit focused on combatting the "smuggling of people and drugs" into the state of Texas.

Abbott also instructed the state's Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Military Department to line the border with steel shipping containers and barbed wire as a part of its supplementary "Operation Steel Curtain."

Migrant Caravan Crosses Into Mexico — Border officials could soon encounter more than 10,000 migrants at the southern U.S. border. Here, migrants walk into Mexico from the Guatemalan border on October 21, 2018, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

"We continuously monitor the situation along the border in order to make real-time decisions and adjust our operations as necessary. DPS is working with federal, state and local partners on this mission, and we stand ready to protect the people and property of this state," Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez told Border Report.

The 3,000-person caravan headed by Center for Human Dignity leader Luis Garcia Villagran, which left Tapachula, Mexico last week, intends to converge with a caravan that departed in late October led by Arizona activist Irineo Mujica. The Mujica was once 4,000 strong but has since dwindled to 1,400 migrants as people have split away from the larger group.

The border could soon face even more individuals. Garcia believes that a third group of roughly 6,000 people, most of whom come from Haiti, could soon be headed toward Eagles Pass along the southwest border stretch of Texas.

"They (the Mexican government) made a deal under the table with the people of Haiti who, in their desperation, don't realize they fell into a trap," Garcia said on social media, according to Border Report. "We have images of 6,000 people at the (immigration) office [...] whom they will take to Coahuila and turn them over to the Yankees. [...] It will be another Del Rio, Texas – the sequel."

In September, border authorities were sent to Del Rio, Texas where they were instructed to handle a caravan of some 15,000 migrants camped out under the Del Rio international bridge. This encounter produced the now-infamous images of CBP officials attempting to apprehend Haitian migrants while on horseback, a move that brought condemnation from President Joe Biden. It remains to be seen whether the imminent caravans will produce a group half that size.