Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star, launched in 2021, has cost Texas more than $11 billion, and in its first months the largest share of its arrests were trespassing-only cases. He also signed Senate Bill 8 in 2025, which requires Texas sheriffs who run jails to seek agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Senate Bill 4 in 2023, which a federal appeals court allowed Texas to enforce in 2026.
In October 2025 Abbott authorized President Trump to send Texas National Guard troops to other states, and about 200 went to the Chicago area before a court kept them out of the city. In May 2025 he urged Congress to finish the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave ICE $45 billion for detention.
Greg Abbott's Border Operation, Immigration Laws and Guard Deployment
- Abbott's Border Operation Has Cost Texas More Than $11 Billion, and Its Largest Share of Arrests Was for Trespassing. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021, and in the summer of 2021 he announced that the state would arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally on charges of trespassing on private property, with the landowners' permission. The operation's spending has passed $11 billion, KXXV reported in May 2025. State police had begun making the arrests and jailing people by July 22, 2021, the AP reported. Of the more than 7,200 arrests state police made in the operation's first seven months, about 40% involved only a trespassing charge, and many of the people arrested spent months in prison, an investigation published April 4, 2022 by the Texas Tribune with ProPublica and The Marshall Project found; the reporters also saw no sign the strategy had slowed immigration.
- Abbott Signed a 2025 Law Requiring Texas Sheriffs Who Run Jails to Seek Agreements With ICE. On June 20, 2025, Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, which took effect January 1, 2026 and requires sheriffs who operate jails to seek 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement by December 1, 2026, under which ICE delegates immigration enforcement duties to local officers; the attorney general may sue a sheriff who does not comply. Under the task force version of these agreements, trained local officers exercise limited immigration enforcement authority during routine police work, beyond the jail. People handed to ICE enter a detention system in which more than 70% do not have criminal convictions, according to ICE data reported by KPBS in August 2026.
- Abbott Signed SB 4, Which Texas Has Been Allowed to Enforce Since 2026. On December 18, 2023, Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4, which makes illegal entry and reentry into Texas state crimes and lets state judges, not immigration judges, order a person deported to Mexico whatever the person's nationality. A federal appeals court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the law in 2026, JURIST reported on June 1, 2026. The law lets a wide range of peace officers, from sheriffs to park rangers, arrest people on suspicion alone, and people can be deported within 48 hours of arrest, including people with pending asylum or other immigration applications, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center reported in July 2026.
- Abbott Authorized Sending Texas National Guard Troops Toward Chicago, Where a Court Kept Them Out. In early October 2025, after Illinois's governor urged him to refuse, Greg Abbott said he fully authorized President Trump to send up to 400 Texas National Guard members to other states to protect federal immigration officers, posting: "You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it," the Texas Tribune reported on October 6, 2025. About 200 Texas Guard members were federalized and sent to the Chicago area during an immigration crackdown, but a federal judge who found no credible evidence of a danger of rebellion barred their deployment into the city, and on December 23, 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that Trump lacked the power to send the military into Illinois; the Congressional Budget Office put the Chicago deployment's cost at $21 million. In a Texas Politics Project poll in October 2025, 43% of Texans strongly opposed sending the Guard and 8% somewhat opposed it.
- The Law Abbott Urged Congress to Finish Gave ICE $45 Billion for Detention. On May 22, 2025, the day the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Greg Abbott thanked the House for including $12 billion to reimburse states for border security and said "there is more work yet to be done to get this legislation to the finish line." The law provides $45 billion for immigrant detention, which the American Immigration Council calculates is a 308 percent increase over ICE's 2024 detention budget on an annual basis. By March 2026 nearly 70,000 people were held in ICE detention, and 23 people had died in ICE custody since October 2025, more than in the whole prior fiscal year, NPR reported.
What Greg Abbott's Immigration Laws Mean for People in Texas
- Police and sheriffs in 186 Texas counties work with ICE. Texas entered 2026 with 299 active 287(g) agreements, held by 241 police and sheriff's agencies in 186 counties, about one in five agreements nationwide, according to ICE data compiled by Texas Policy Research, and Senate Bill 8 makes such an agreement mandatory for every sheriff who runs a jail.
- Nearly forty people were arrested in Texas under SB 4 before it could be enforced. Public records requests found that Texas officers arrested nearly forty people under SB 4 during 2025, before the law had taken effect, in places as far north as Tarrant County, and advocates have documented people arrested under it and quickly transferred to ICE custody before they could defend themselves against the state charges, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center reported.
- People held for months in Texas prisons on trespassing charges. Many people arrested on Operation Lone Star's misdemeanor trespassing charges spent months in Texas prisons, the Texas Tribune investigation found, and a former Border Patrol sector chief told the reporters that the arrests do not deter cartels or gangs and instead hurt migrants traveling alone, without smugglers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Greg Abbott on Immigration and enforcement
What is Greg Abbott's record on immigration and enforcement under Trump?
Greg Abbott runs Operation Lone Star, his state border operation, and signed Senate Bill 8, under which every sheriff who runs a jail must have an ICE agreement by December 2026. Texas was allowed in 2026 to enforce his Senate Bill 4, which lets state officers arrest people on suspicion of illegal entry and state judges order deportations. He also authorized sending Texas Guard troops to other states in October 2025 and urged Congress to finish the law that gave ICE $45 billion for detention.
Does Greg Abbott's law force Texas sheriffs to work with ICE?
Yes. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, which requires every Texas sheriff who runs a jail to request and enter a 287(g) agreement with ICE by December 1, 2026, and lets the attorney general sue a sheriff who does not. The law also sets up a state grant program, run through the comptroller, of $80,000 to $140,000 per county to cover sheriffs' costs of the agreements.
Did Greg Abbott send the Texas National Guard to Chicago?
Greg Abbott authorized President Trump in October 2025 to deploy up to 400 Texas Guard members to other states, and about 200 were sent to the Chicago area, where courts kept them out of the city; they returned home just before Thanksgiving. A majority of Texans opposed the move in the Texas Politics Project's October 2025 poll.
Can Greg Abbott's SB 4 deport people who have a pending asylum case?
Yes. Greg Abbott's Senate Bill 4 bars state judges from pausing a prosecution because a person's federal immigration case is pending, so a person who has applied for asylum, Temporary Protected Status or a U visa can be deported anyway once prosecuted under it, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center explains.
Last updated: 2026-10-26