A judge in Travis County, Texas, presented a major challenge to
Operation Lone Star,
declaring the imprisonment of an immigrant who crossed the border illegally unconstitutional on Thursday.
In June of last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that state agents would jail undocumented migrants who cross the border irregularly, charging them with criminal trespassing of private property.
Judge Jan Soifer ordered the case against Jesús Alberto Guzmán Curipoma, an engineer from Ecuador who was arrested in September on trespassing charges, to be dismissed.
Soifer agreed with defense attorney Angelica Cogliano, who argued that Operation Lone Star usurped the powers of the federation by putting immigration enforcement in the hands of state and local authorities.
The lawyer also argued that Curipoma should have been considered for asylum, a right that anyone has,
but instead was jailed, station KVUE reported.
Texas empties a prison to incarcerate immigrants who cross illegally
June 18, 202100:26
"The Government of Texas is restricting the freedom of thousands under the guise of criminal trespassing charges, in an attempt to usurp federal immigration laws and force the Federal Government to implement policies favored by Governor Abbott," the attorney wrote. according to judicial documents consulted by the aforementioned media.
Judge Soifer's decision
sets an important precedent for migrants who are in prison after being accused of trespassing
, Cogliano said.
Most of the land along the southern Texas border is private, which has made it easier for authorities to bring charges against people who cross there.
[The first 10 migrants are incarcerated in the prison that Texas emptied for those who cross the border without authorization]
To implement his plan to jail migrants for crossing the border without authorization, he even ordered the emptying of Dilley State Prison in June.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, at a press conference in Rio Grande, on September 21, 2021. Julio Cortez / AP
The jailings come at a time when Abbott is seeking re-election in this year's election.
The Republican governor has tried to position himself as an heir to the Trump Administration's heavy-handed policies and has implemented a series of measures to combat irregular immigration in the state.
In addition to jailing migrants, he has vowed to build new stretches of border wall, has closed official ports of entry multiple times due to migrant arrivals, and has deployed the Texas National Guard along the border.
[Abbott issues executive order to limit transportation of migrants in Texas who may spread COVID-19]
It has also tried to ban the transportation through Texas of migrants in federal custody, though the order has been halted by the courts.
In fiscal year 2021 (September 2020 to October 2021), Customs and Border Protection intercepted more than 1.6 million migrants, some of whom were detained more than once.
This is a record figure that quadrupled the number of meetings last year, according to official data.
