TRLA Raising Money to Pay Bonds for Migrants Jailed for Months Under ‘Operation Lone Star’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DEC. 20, 2021    

Contact: Robert Elder, TRLA Communications Director | (512) 374-2764, relder@trla.org   

AUSTIN – Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) has launched a $460,500 fundraising campaign to pay bonds for 126 migrants languishing in jail after being arrested under Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” (OLS) border security initiative. 

TRLA represents the migrants, who were arrested by state troopers in the summer and fall and charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. Bonds range from $1,000 to $15,000. The migrants are in a state prison in Dilley that was converted into a state jail to hold OLS detainees. 

Most of the migrants have been in jail for at least three months, with the prospect of spending many more months in custody before trial. That’s because Kinney County, where most OLS arrests have been made, recently canceled court hearings for 20 jailed migrants and dismissed three retired judges appointed to help the county judge hear cases. 

“Never in our 51 years has TRLA sought public assistance to bail out defendants who are imprisoned awaiting trial,” said Executive Director Robert Doggett. “It is truly extraordinary, but what is happening along the border is unprecedented. As the lawyers for clients who are often the most vulnerable, we have to try everything we can to prevent injustice because they can least afford it.” 

Last week, Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan dismissed the appointed judges, who released some migrants on no-cost bonds after they pleaded not guilty. Shahan, however, has not allowed migrants to be released on bonds, meaning they face an indeterminate stay in converted state prisons unless they plead guilty. Shahan appointed five new judges who presumably share his views to hear cases. 

“The dismissed judges, who were just a few months into their one-year terms, were following the rule of law and properly dismissing many of the cases,” said Rachel Garza, a TRLA attorney working on the OLS defense team. “From his public actions, Judge Shahan, who has picked their replacements, sees immigration policy as a war, not a legal process.” 

In April, Shahan and Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith signed a “local state of disaster” resolution. The resolution is “due to the thousands of illegal aliens invading our great state of Texas,” the officials wrote in a letter accompanying the resolution. “This invasion has resulted in our residents being assaulted, injured, threatened, robbed, and intimidated by illegal aliens from around the world. As Texans, we will no longer allow the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our borders to be violated.” 

Unless the migrants in jail plead guilty to a crime they don’t believe they committed, Kinney County intends to keep them in prison until their trials are scheduled. 

“These events raise serious questions concerning whether the judge is undertaking a concerted campaign to undermine constitutional rights and the rule of law in Kinney County,” TRLA’s Garza said. 

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid provides free legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney. We work in 68 South and southwestern counties, including all the U.S.-Mexico border. TRLA attorneys specialize in more than 45 areas of law, including disaster assistance, family, employment, landlord-tenant, housing, education, immigration, farmworker, and civil rights. Our hotline is open 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday – Friday: 956-996-TRLA (8752).