Photo: Brandon Bell / Getty Images
For: EFE
A judge ruled today Thursday that the Operation Lone Star, launched last year by the governor of Texas Greg Abbott, to combat the arrival of migrants undocumented immigrants across the border with Mexico, violates the United States Constitution.
The Travis County State District Judge Jan Soifer1354099408 issued his ruling in the case of a lawsuit against the arrest of a man from Ecuador seeking asylum, reported the Austin American Statesman newspaper on its website.
The lawyers of the Ecuadorian, called Jesús Alberto Guzmán Curipoma, maintain that their client is one of the thousands of migrants arrested as part of of Abbott’s efforts against undocumented immigration.
Soifer’s ruling “establishes a clear path for all persons arrested under Operation Lone Star to challenge their detentions”, said Kristin Etter, director of special projects for the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid organization, which represents some 500 people arrested as part of that operation.
Guzmán Curipoma, an engineer without criminal record, he was arrested last 16 September in a railway yard and charged of a misdemeanor trespassing charge in Kinney County, a short distance from the Mexican border. He was released on bail and remains in Texas.
Guzmán Curipoma’s defense argues that his client’s detention violates the clause of the US Constitution that stipulates that federal laws have supremacy over state laws, and that states cannot “obstruct or discriminate” with the application of federal immigration laws.
Governor Abbott announcedior the start of Operation E Lone star in March last year to counteract with state resources the increase in the arrival of immigrants to Texas.
As part of this measure, local authorities were instructed to impose criminal charges on immigrants for trespassing for crossing the southern border undocumented and crossing state or private land.
Under this order hundreds of undocumented immigrants have been arrested in recent months and prosecuted for trespassing charges.
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