Friday 30 October 2026
ICE arrests 4,170 people across Texas in a ten day operation the department calls Lone Star Mission
The Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday that ICE arrested 4,170 people in Texas between October 19 and October 29 in a coordinated operation run by all five of the agency's Texas field offices. Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the arrests included murderers, sexual assailants, drunk drivers and alien smugglers, and the department named individual cases, among them a Mexican national previously deported twice who faces a capital murder arrest and a member of the La Linea cartel arrested in El Paso. About 60 percent of those arrested had criminal histories, officials said, without a breakdown of convictions.
Ten days, five field offices, one state. The Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday in Dallas that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 4,170 people across Texas from October 19 to October 29 in an operation it calls Lone Star Mission. The Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Harlingen field offices ran the operation together, with Texas law enforcement and National Guard members authorized to make immigration arrests under federal authority.
Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it an incredible success and said the arrests included murderers, sexual assailants, drunk drivers and alien smugglers. The department's account put the share with criminal histories at about 60 percent. It did not provide a breakdown of convictions or of how many of the arrests were for violent crimes, and civil liberties groups and local reporters have raised questions about oversight and about disputed ICE use of force incidents in Texas during the same period.
The department named its strongest cases. Javier Hernandez Alcon, a Mexican national deported twice before, was arrested in Liberty on October 20. His record includes convictions for burglary with forced entry into a residence and for illegal reentry, and an arrest for capital murder. Orlando Aguilar, also from Mexico, was arrested in Dallas on October 24 with convictions for felony intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury and for driving while intoxicated. Victor Manuel Macias Castro, a Mexican national the department identifies as a member of the La Linea cartel, was arrested in El Paso on October 22. Ramon Antonio Martinez, from Honduras, was arrested in Houston on October 23.
Mullin used the Dallas press conference to contrast the administration's immigration approach with President Biden's, five days before midterm elections in which Texas has several competitive races. The totals are the department's own figures, released as a statewide aggregate. No independent count of the operation has been published.
Spotted an error in this story? Email [email protected] and it will be checked against the sources.