After district court success, lawyers challenge more than 400 Operation Lone Star arrests

After a state district judge in Travis County ruled that one man's border arrest was unconstitutional, additional defense attorneys have filed a petition in Travis County, challenging more than 400 arrests that they say were part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to combat illegal border crossings.

As with the original case, all the Operation Lone Star arrests they're challenging occurred in Kinney County, which sits along the U.S.-Mexico border. The majority of the men arrested have since been released, but 53 of them are still in prison, court records say.

Travis County state District Judge Jan Soifer on Jan. 13 dismissed a Kinney County trespassing charge against Jesus Guzman Curipoma, an Ecuadorian man seeking asylum who was arrested at a railroad switching yard by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper. His lawyers had argued that his arrest violated the U.S. Constitution because regulating immigration is an area of exclusive federal control.

While unusual, the case was filed many miles from where DPS alleges the crime occurred because any District Court in Texas has authority over such applications, Guzman Curipoma's defense attorneys argued in filings last week.

Earlier: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown violates U.S. Constitution, defense lawyers say

Travis County District Attorney José Garza's office represented the state in the case and sided with the defense, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has vowed to appeal the ruling.

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is bringing the new challenge, after one of their attorneys, Kristin Etter, testified during the Jan. 13 hearing. The group's new petition makes the same arguments that Guzman Curipoma's attorneys made in Travis County last week.

Etter argued last week that those arrested through Operation Lone Star are not afforded the rights they should be under the U.S. Constitution, including the right to an attorney and a speedy trial.

Operation Lone Star "places those individuals in a separate, substandard and unequal criminal justice system based solely on their suspected immigration status," Etter testified.

"It's absolutely a separate system at every level," she said.

More: Texas AG Paxton to appeal Austin judge's ruling that Operation Lone Star is unconstitutional

Abbott unveiled Operation Lone Star in March, saying he was deploying thousands of DPS officers and Texas National Guard troops to the border amid a sharp increase in migrants crossing from Mexico illegally or to seek asylum.

"We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis,” Abbott said at the time, blaming the Biden administration for policies that he said invited illegal immigration and roiled the border in a growing humanitarian crisis.

Abbott's office last year committed almost $75 million to the effort, including $22.3 million toward efforts to prosecute state crimes at the border.

Most of those arrested have been charged with criminal trespass, defense attorneys said.

Typically in Texas, if someone is charged with criminal trespass, "most prosecutors aren't seeking jail time or hefty fines on a case like that," testified Kathryn Dyer, a University of Texas law professor who has represented people charged under Operation Lone Star. "Many, many criminal trespass cases get dismissed, and they are treated as much less serious offenses in the criminal legal system. It is rare for somebody to be held on pretrial detention on a criminal trespass case."

Of the 53 Kinney County defendants who are still in jail, all have been held for more than 100 days, according to court records.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Over 400 Operation Lone Star arrests challenged in Travis County court