[Sheriff Coe VO] Being this close to the border,
we've always had illegal immigration.
It's well within our constitutional right to protect
the people of our county.
This shows you what Operation Lone Star, in action,
really means.
Federal immigration law is under the federal government's
authority.
How does Governor Abbott get away with Operation Lone Star?
They're using the criminal trespass statute in the Texas
Penal Code.
[Hunter VO] They had a couple helicopters fly in and drop
soldiers off.
The Texas Military Department brought their own film crew.
How does that deter an asylum seeker?
Until the federal government gets off their butt,
we're on our own.
dramatic tense music
[Ben VO] Almost 16 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of
-Ukraine... -[blast]
how long can they keep this up?
[groans]
More and more soldiers are pressing in.
What do you think the cost of this war is?
dramatic theme music
[shouting]
Hoorah!
[blasts]
deep tense music
So we were driving along the Rio Grande and we just pulled
over because a young migrant woman has just been apprehended
by both Border Patrol agents and the Texas National Guard.
We saw her getting into this Border Patrol truck that's right
behind me.
But this shows you exactly what Operation Lone Star,
in action, really means.
[Paola VO] In March 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced
Operation Lone Star -- or OLS -- in response to what he referred
to as "an invasion of migrants at the southern border."
Texas is sending a message:
we're ready, we're waiting for you.
If you dare step into the state of Texas,
Texas will use every tool and strategy we can to make sure
that the laws in the state of Texas are gonna be enforced.
[Paola VO] Abbott deployed thousands of Texas National
Guard members in the largest show of force by the state since
the Civil War, and empowered State Troopers and local law
enforcement to arrest suspected migrants.
His policy has been widely criticized for effectively
transferring power over immigration matters from the
federal government to the state.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe is one of those tasked with
carrying out Operation Lone Star.
He's a former Border Patrol agent,
and has fully embraced Governor Abbott's initiative.
Being this close to the border, we've always had illegal
immigration.
But then after the Biden Administration took over,
we saw a huge increase in our alien smuggling apprehensions.
And the mission under Operation Lone Star is specifically
to go after these migrants?
[Sheriff Coe] The whole point of the mission is to try to secure
the border to keep them from coming.
To deter them from coming.
[Sheriff Coe] Right.
My mission part of this is to keep them out of the county.
You can't sling a dead cat without hitting a...
-[Paola] Mm. -Hitting a smuggling load.
[Paola VO] Operation Lone Star increased resources for state
and local authorities to enforce laws against crimes
like trespassing and smuggling.
Kinney County, which sits along the border,
received $3.2 million alone.
So far, OLS has resulted in the apprehension of over 300,000
migrants, but Kinney County has the most arrests in Texas under
Abbott's program.
[Paola] What are we looking at right there?
Another group of aliens walking through somebody's property.
And that appears to be some migrants that are trespassing
into private land?
[Sheriff Coe] Oh yeah, they're all definitely trespassing.
Crossing the highway, getting ready to be picked up.
We got two small children.
Daytime means a couple of 'em are in camo.
You got guys here in camo.
Camo.
We are looking for anybody that's in violation of the law.
How do you define what Operation Lone Star is?
Back in 2021, when we had the big influx of the Haitians
taking over the Port of Entry Del Rio,
we were under siege.
The federal government's not doing their job,
so Governor Abbott stepped up --
"We will protect our own border."
Under the Constitution, he has that authority to protect
the people of the state.
Which is a controversial thing to say considering that federal
-immigration law-- -Well, n--
As it is known, is under the federal government's--
-[Sheriff Coe] Right. -Authority.
However, we're not enforcing immigration law,
we're enforcing criminal law.
It's well within our constitutional right to protect
the people of our county.
On average, how many migrants have you arrested per month?
I'd say between 100-- 120 to 150 a month.
[Paola] 150 migrants a month.
On a conservative side.
But do you really believe that these criminal trespassing
charges actually deter migrants from coming?
I mean, how does that deter an asylum seeker?
The asylum seekers are turning themselves in,
but they're not--
But surely, everyone in those photos that showed me aren't
criminals.
-I mean, I saw children, I saw-- -We saw children.
But why are they circumventing the system?
If they're looking for asylum, why aren't they going through
the proper methods for asylum?
Those people are not looking for asylum.
They're looking for something else.
2022 saw the highest rates of border apprehensions on record.
Mm-hm.
Where is the data to show that this operation actually works?
Well, I mean, personally, I think we can show the fact that,
hey, we're arresting people, this is still going on,
and it's gonna continue.
But until the federal government gets off their butt...
[Paola] Mm.
And decides to do something, we're on our own.
[Paola VO] Instead of compelling the federal
government into action,
Operation Lone Star has diminished its role
along the border.
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid defends migrants apprehended as
a result of OLS, and found that over 30 percent of its clients
were handed over to local law enforcement by federal agencies
like Customs and Border Patrol.
CBP is charged with processing migrants at the border.
Surrendering them to local authorities removes migrants
from the federal immigration system.
Instead, they're sent to prisons across the state,
which delays their process to seek asylum.
Rachel Garza is an attorney representing migrants who have
been charged with misdemeanors by the state.
So most of the arrests are here in Kinney County,
a few in Val Verde right here...
Mm-hm.
[Rachel] Maverick, Webb, Jim Hogg...
The prison is here in Dilley, Texas,
which is in Frio County.
[Paola] So all of these folks are being transferred miles and
-miles away... -[Rachel] Yup.
[Paola] From where they are.
[Rachel] Hundreds of miles away.
Operation Lone Star is really a shadow criminal system.
Mm.
[Rachel] It's not a criminal justice system.
We don't see justice happening.
Only the federal government has sole power and authority over
these immigration matters; is that correct?
Yes, and that's really because we don't want different states
handling this issue differently
when it's an issue that affects the entire United States.
So if that's the case, then how does Governor Abbott
get away with Operation Lone Star?
They're using state law to enforce immigration policies.
Got it.
So they're using the criminal trespass statute in the Texas
Penal Code to arrest and detain
undocumented persons coming into the United States.
So they have figured out a loophole around--
Exactly.
[Paola] Federal immigration law.
Exactly.
It seems like there's a group of people that are invisible
in this system.
They're being transported all around the state without the
federal government sort of overseeing all of this.
Are they sort of lost in the system?
Absolutely.
We've even experienced where the prison doesn't know where our
client is.
I have seen people spend 100 days or more
in prison.
But all of these individuals are still entitled to their
constitutional rights -- their right to a speedy trial,
their right to be heard.
It's not set up to handle this.
[Paola VO] Governor Abbott has promoted these arrests from
Operation Lone Star as a sign of its success,
going so far as to campaign off of the program during the 2022
gubernatorial election.
[man VO] No other governor has done more to secure our border
than Greg Abbott.
[Paola VO] But an investigation last year revealed that
thousands of arrests attributed to OLS occurred hundreds of
miles away from the border,
having nothing to do with migrants,
and the Department of Justice is currently
investigating Operation Lone Star for unlawfully targeting
individuals based on their race.
Even those deployed along the border have called the program
into question.
-All right, y'all ready? -[Paola] Yeah!
[Paola VO] Hunter Schuler, a medic with Texas National Guard,
was deployed for eight months under Operation Lone Star.
While at the border, Schuler said many of his peers
complained about being squeezed into bunk beds in trucks,
not having electricity or plumbing,
and not getting paid on time.
[Hunter] The Guard today is a lot different than what it was--
-[Paola] What it used to be? -[Hunter] When I joined, yeah.
COVID and other things,
-like the border mission-- -Yes, of course.
Have shown that, like, governors have sort of realized
that the National Guard has become this "Easy" button for
-fixing a lot of problems. -[Paola] Oh, interesting, yeah.
[Paola VO] In response, Schuler unionized the Texas National
Guard, and contends that from the beginning,
Abbott has been using guardsmen as political pawns to rile up
his base.
Were the National Guardsmen there trained to serve at the
-border? -[Hunter] [chuckles] No.
[laughing] No, no, no, no, no.
We spent maybe...
not even 36 hours at Camp Swift before turning around and going
to the border.
I mean, we didn't need medic training to be medics,
but as far as, like, what to do with,
you know, when you see a migrant or something,
what the actual, like, operational rules were and what
our responsibilities were was sort of just made
as we went along.
There was a lot of shooting from the hip.
Did you really understand what your role was
when you were there?
Well, yeah, but in a very jaded view.
Like, within a couple weeks of being there,
we got our first sort of major, like,
exercise assignment.
We went to Eagle Pass, and then they wanted a bunch of Humvees
posted up there as well with razor wire,
and then a bunch of State Troopers showed up,
and they had a couple helicopters fly in and drop
soldiers off.
The Texas Military Department brought their own film crew!
They had guys with, like, GoPros and drones out there,
like, getting up in our faces and, like,
trying to do all these cool shots of,
-you know-- -Yeah.
They were basically filming a recruiting commercial or a
promotional video that you see on Twitter or Instagram,
and that really just cemented -- at least in my mind --
what our purpose was there.
When you take a step back,
has the mission succeeded in its goal?
Well, if the goal was to get Governor Abbott re-elected,
then yeah, clearly it succeeded.
But I don't know that anybody ever really sat down and
thought, like, "What is our desired end state
here at the border?"
I think the mission was political,
and we did a great job, obviously;
Texas voters resoundingly supported the mission,
apparently.
Is Operation Lone Star a good use of the National Guard?
[laughs] No!
No, no, no. No.
And what is the cost of that?
There's different kinds of cost;
there's the monetary cost -- it has soared into the billions of
dollars -- but there's also a humanitarian cost.
[Paola VO] So far, Texas has spent over $4 billion on
Operation Lone Star, and additional funds are needed to
sustain the personnel along the border.
But even more costly has been the human toll.
30 migrants and at least 10 Texas National Guard members
have died in connection to Operation Lone Star as a result
of suicides, friendly fire, and other accidents.
One of them was Bishop Evans.
[Paola] What had he heard about Operation Lone Star?
What did you all know about it?
Just the things that you see on the news.
I was more concerned when he was in Iraq...
-[Paola] Mm. -Than I was at the border.
[Paola VO] 22-year-old Evans was a National Guardsman who
drowned while trying to save two migrants in the Rio Grande in
April 2022.
Reports later revealed that Evans wasn't outfitted with a
life vest while on duty.
His grandmother, Jo Ann Johnson,
is still grappling with his death.
What exactly happened down there?
[Jo Ann] I have no idea.
They saw him going in the water,
but they never saw him coming out.
Do you think Bishop was trained to do something like that?
Not that I know of, but not from what I've been told and
what we've found out.
As far as Bishop, 22 years doesn't seem like a lot,
but I am so blessed
to have had that 22 years.
I don't know how I could've done without that.
Right...
face!
March!
[Reginald VO] Thank y'all for coming out.
It really means a lot to us.
Officially, this is Bishop Evans Day,
so we continue to remember him and his legacy and what he's
done for us, as he lives in our heart,
and what he's done for our country.
[cheering]
[Paola VO] In May, prompted by the expiration of Title 42,
the pandemic-era rule that allowed US authorities to expel
migrants from the country, Governor Abbott announced the
creation of a new tactical unit under OLS that he immediately
deployed to El Paso.
The Texas National Guard is deploying specially-trained
National Guard members for the Texas Tactical Border Force.
[Paola VO] We sent multiple requests for an interview with
the Governor that went unanswered.
If Governor Abbott was sitting here and you could ask him one
question about the mission, what would it be?
What are you trying to accomplish --
not from a political standpoint,
but from a standpoint on how it's gonna benefit the US,
and how is it gonna benefit the immigrants coming across?
The heart of Operation Lone Star is based on this idea that
there is a massive threat at the border.
Do you feel that threat?
Well... [sighs]
not on a personal level,
but when you group everybody as "They're bad coming across the
border," then I think you're doing a disjustice
to the people who really are here to try to better their
lives, and who want to be hardworking citizens.
tense theme music
[engine rumbling]
tense ethereal music
This is a tiny team that just does reconnaissance and small
assaults all around this area to try to assault the Russians.
It's wet, it's muddy out here, it's just been tore up from
the mortar shells.
This is a really dangerous location.
[Ben VO] The bloodiest and most brutal fight in Ukraine is
happening here, at the southern edge of Bakhmut,
a city in Eastern Ukraine where the battle has become
ground zero in this war.
Commander Kurt is protecting the southern flank from a Russian
advance, but with limited supplies,
the unit is slowly losing ground.
intense music
[blasts]
[gunfire]
[shouting]
[gunfire]
[Ben VO] Almost 16 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of
Ukraine, an estimated 20 to 50,000 artillery shells are
being lobbed back and forth each day.
Nearly 10,000 heavy weapons have been destroyed,
and both countries continue to invest billions and billions
more each month.
Neither side can afford to show any signs of slowing.
But the pace is unsustainable.
Nowhere is that more apparent than the fight for Bakhmut,
which has become more of a symbolic battle
than a strategic one.
[Ben VO] With Ukraine having to ration its ammo,
Kurt's team is forced to rely on an old Soviet-era assault
vehicle prone to malfunction.
[Ben VO] The war has come at a steep cost.
The Ukrainian government shies away from releasing casualty
numbers, and Russian data is grossly underrepresented.
US officials estimate that more than 300,000 in total have been
killed or injured.
tense music
[man groaning]
[men speaking foreign language]
[groans and whimpers]
Right now, we're at a stabilization point just on the
outskirts of Bakhmut.
The numbers on how many soldiers are being killed and injured in
Ukraine is very murky, so we came here to see one shift in
real time to understand just how many soldiers are being injured
and killed here.
As you can see, it's a lot.
So what is it like out there at the front?
[man groaning]
So this, this is another injury that just came in.
About half of his leg is missing.
This is the worst injury we've seen today by far.
[Ben VO] Dr. Serhiy is the head trauma surgeon here.
He's been at the front line treating soldiers for months
with no break.
How difficult is it for you to keep seeing this?
How many of these soldiers will return to fight?
[Ben VO] In just a few hours, we counted 48 wounded soldiers
and six killed.
The doctors said it was a slow day.
tense ethereal music
[Ben VO] Denys is one of the lucky ones.
After a Russian artillery strike,
he came away with only a mild concussion.
Five men on his team were killed beside him.
Will you go back?
Do you feel like you have the support that you need there?
[sighs]
tender ethereal music
[speaking foreign language]
[Ben VO] A month after, Bakhmut finally fell to Russia.
[men cheering]
The battle drained resources from both sides,
and has left stockpiles razor thin.
[drone buzzing]
The West can't make and send weapons fast enough,
so the Ukrainians have had to adapt,
modifying things like amateur racing drones into makeshift
tank killers.
And it all happens here, in this secret DIY bomb lab.
[Ben] So this is a boobytrap?
[Ben VO] This man goes by the name "Ghost."
He's hiding his identity out of fear of Russian retribution.
[Ben] So explain to me what these are.
How much does it cost to make one of these?
How did you learn how to do this?
[laughs]
[Ben VO] With an army of 3D printers and captured Russian
munitions, Ghost and his team are working around the clock.
These cheap and improvised explosives are helping to fill
the munition shortages.
[Ben] So what is this place?
-[thud] -[Ben] [chuckles]
Semtex?
Plastic explosives?
-[Ben] Oh, wow. -[thud]
[Ben] So you're modifying these mortars to attach to these
drones?
[Ben] And this could stop a tank?
It's 3D-printed cap, it's a pipe -- like a plumbing pipe --
and then a zipline.
Like, how much does this cost, do you think?
[Ben] That's, like, less than ten dollars.
[Ben] And how long do you think you can keep making these
to keep supporting the war?
tense ambient music
[Ben VO] That resolve to fight means the bombs will keep
falling, and the death toll will continue to skyrocket.
So right now, we're out with a team of body collectors.
They're saying just up the road here is a group of bodies that
have been left over for over a year.
All around here, there are boobytraps,
there are Russian mines, so it's still really dangerous work for
these guys to be digging around.
tender ethereal music
[Ben VO] Misha is a body collector,
and has been working nonstop for the past nine months straight.
It's somber work, but for Misha and his team,
it's important to honor the fallen soldiers
and return them home.
So what exactly is the process here?
[Ben VO] According to leaked US documents,
the death toll for Putin has been nearly twice as high as
Ukraine's.
The toll is so immense, Misha must also pick up the bodies of
his enemies.
Ukrainian officials say they can use this mass grave of six
Russian soldiers as potential trading leverage for live
Ukrainian captives.
[Ben] So they've been here for about an hour now.
They've pulled out three bodies.
You can see the dog tags on some of these guys.
They look like they've been here for months.
The smell around here is really strong.
I mean, you could smell that there's bodies that have been
decomposing here for a long, long time.
For all of the soldiers you're seeing and all the dead you're
seeing here, what do you think the cost of this war is
on both sides?
[Ben] You're seeing so many of these Russian young men dead.
I mean, is it hard for you to see these people that have died,
even though they're the invaders of your country?
dark electronic music