Immigration (legal pathway)

Greg Abbott (R)

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 and has spent more than $11 billion in state funds on it — roughly $4.75 billion for border barrier and arrests, $3.62 billion for National Guard personnel, $2.25 billion for DPS — and in 2024 asked Congress to reimburse the full $11.1 billion. On state enforcement, he signed Texas's 2017 anti-'sanctuary cities' SB 4 in a five-minute Facebook livestream on May 7, 2017, and in December 2023 signed the new SB 4 making illegal entry a state crime punishable by Texas police; the DOJ and ACLU sued, a district judge blocked it, and the en banc Fifth Circuit reversed that injunction. On legal pathways and Dreamers, Abbott went from calling the Texas DREAM Act's objective 'noble' in 2013 to presiding over its 2025 dismantling — agencies under his control ended in-state tuition for undocumented students (affecting up to 18,500 enrollees) and stopped issuing commercial driver's licenses to DACA recipients, refugees, and asylees, with his spokesperson saying benefits 'should not be used to incentivize unlawful presence.'

Gina Hinojosa (D)

Hinojosa has made Operation Lone Star a central indictment of Abbott, repeatedly calling the program a waste of taxpayer dollars and saying 'DPS officers are being paid overtime to be on the border when border crossings are at record lows' and that the money would be better spent 'into local community policing.' She has demanded Abbott sue the federal government to recover the roughly $11 billion in promised Operation Lone Star reimbursements still outstanding. On immigrant communities themselves, she has said 'border security is important and we need a secure border, but at the same time, we should not be treating immigrants who have been in this country for twenty years who are hardworking and law-abiding as criminals.' Her launch speech in Brownsville leaned into her Rio Grande Valley roots and her grandmother's phrase 'no te dejes' ('don't let them push you around'). The available record does not include a specific, on-the-record stance from her on SB 4 (2023), the state illegal-entry felony statute, or on DACA/Dreamer-specific state policy.

Immigration (legal pathway)

Greg Abbott (R)

Gina Hinojosa (D)

Sources