By Alexandra Ulmer

DEL RIO Texas (Reuters) – Gaston is a 57-year old Venezuelan human rights lawyer who spent years touring the worst prisons in Venezuela to help students protesting against its socialist government.

Gaston fled fearing that he would be retaliated against by authorities. He crossed the Rio Grande into Texas and headed to the U.S. border with Mexico to apply for asylum. He crossed the Rio Grande to Texas on Aug. 8 in an attempt to surrender to U.S. border officials.

According to court records, he was instead arrested by Texas State troopers. This was just one of the approximately 1,600 border crossers arrested for trespassing in Texas this July as a result of Operation Lone Star, an immigrant crackdown led by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

Abbott stated that the Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration promotes a “catastrophic, open border” policy. This has led to record crossings which have fuelled local anger. Kinney and Val Verde counties in Texas have joined the Governor’s Call for Local Police to Arrest Migrants for Criminal Trespassing.

According to immigration advocates, Abbott improperly takes federal responsibility for immigration enforcement into his own hands. The advocates also expressed concern about the possibility of migrants being kept in prison for several months while they wait for their cases to be heard.

A Reuters review revealed that many of these trespassing cases are falling apart by themselves. At least one county attorney and defense attorneys have pointed out problems in many of these cases. They include unclear details about the charges and imprecise information on misdemeanors.

David Martinez, the Val Verde County attorney, said to Reuters that his office declined to pursue 105 of 231 migrant trespassing cases in Gaston’s case. He had received them as late October.

Martinez said that Martinez is a Democrat from a heavily Hispanic and bilingual county. He believes the violation was as easy as someone crossing someone’s property in order to reach a public roadway. According to Martinez, migrants look for help from law enforcement in order to submit an asylum application.

Reuters asked for information on county judges’ decisions but received no response.

WEEKS BEHIND BAARS

Gaston spent a month in Texas’ state prison at Dilley until Martinez released him. Martinez cited Gaston’s legal right to asylum. Gaston stated that he spent three additional weeks in U.S. immigration agency custody before being released September 29 to pursue his claims at immigration court.

Gaston said, “I’ve never been taken into custody. Not even in a high-security jail.” Gaston now lives in Florida and said that it was treatment for a criminal. Gaston requested that his name be changed to his initials in order to keep his family safe.

Most of the 1600 arrests for trespassing in Texas have occurred in Val Verde’s Kinney County. Officials said that they had more than 1000 active cases.

The same questions about the legality of the charges were also raised there.

Kristin Etter is a Texas RioGrande Legal Aid lawyer. She said that all the Kinney County charges she has seen have “defective elements”, including omission of essential details like where it was committed.

Kinney County Attorney Smith refuted that assertion, stating that the judges who are assigned to these cases asked for more information that is usually required for criminal trespass.

Smith, who is a Republican, stated that they expect to file all cases.

Requests for comment from County Judge Tully Shahan were not answered.

Brad Coe of Kinney County stressed the fact that landowners had become tired of having to deal with trash and cutting fences left by increasing numbers of migrants crossing. The southwest border saw 1.7 million immigrants in fiscal year 2005, which was the largest number of migrants ever seen. However, many are repeat crossings.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, it is up to the prosecutors to decide whether or not to bring a case. They also stated that they remain committed to Operation Lone Star. Abbott’s Office stated in a statement, that Texas will continue to spend resources on securing its border.

Abbott, who is a Republican for two terms, seeks to draw on the anti-immigration history of Donald Trump in order to make a strong case in front of unsurprisingly competitive Republican primaries in February 2022 and a November gubernatorial election in the state.

“We are the first & last line of defense at our border,” Abbott wrote on Twitter (NYSE:) on Tuesday.