Immigration enforcement has long been the domain of the federal government. Texas is trying to change that.
There was a time when migrants arriving here would cross the Rio Grande, make their way to a gate in the border fence and turn themselves in to federal agents to claim asylum. That was before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott turned Gate 36 into a militarized zone, fortified by rifle-toting soldiers, a fleet of Humvees and a forest of razor wire glistening in the desert sun. 'It looks like a prison,' Mario Jesús Nazareño said Saturday afternoon, gazing north across the river.
'Obviously Operation Lone Star is a state initiative, not a federal one, but we are there and we cooperate,' said one Border Patrol official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Many of the migrants have traveled for months from South America and beyond, crossing oceans, jungles, mountains, cities and deserts in a transcontinental odyssey. Some heard of Gate 36 long before arriving here.
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