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(WASHINGTON)– The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Texas’ “Operation Lone Star” border security initiative for potential civil rights violations, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.

The operation, a Texas Department of Public Safety program, targets migrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. It was rolled out by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021 to curb migrant traffic into the state.

The DOJ is seeking information to determine whether Texas DPS is in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“The Department is seeking this information after receiving information indicating that DPS may be discriminating on the basis of race and/or national origin in its activities related to Operation Lone Star by targeting certain individuals for arrests for misdemeanor trespass violations and traffic stops based on their perceived or actual race or national origin,” reads the letter dated May 16 and sent by the Justice Department’s Federal Coordination and Compliance Section Chief Christine Stoneman.

A Texas DPS spokesperson said the department is complying with all federal civil rights inquiries. Texas DPS is a recipient of both DOJ and Department of Homeland Security funding, per the letter.

The news of the DOJ probe comes a week after 53 migrants, who were being smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border, were found dead in a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio.

Through Operation Lone Star, Abbott has deployed around 10,000 DPS officers and soldiers from the Texas National Guard to the border to assist with the arrest of migrants.

Immigration lawyers and rights groups have sounded the alarm over the program, which they say has ramped up arrests of migrants on allegedly spurious trespassing charges. Many arrestees have been detained for weeks at a time. Some have not been given adequate resources to obtain legal representation.

In interviews with ABC News, current and former national guardsmen also spoke out about low morale and even several suicides among the troops deployed at the border, citing issues with payment, unstable housing conditions and a lack of proper training. One national guardsman assigned to the operation died while trying to save drowning migrants.

In response to the DOJ probe, Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, slammed President Biden’s “open border policies” and accused the administration of “attacking the only state taking unprecedented actions to do the federal government’s job.”

“It’s time for President Biden to fulfill his oath of office and secure our southern border,” she said in a statement.

Texas has allocated more than $4 billion of Texas taxpayer money for border security, including building the state’s own border wall and erecting other “strategic barriers,” according to Eze.

She added that the program has resulted in more than 274,000 migrant apprehensions, more than 16,900 criminal arrests, including smugglers and human traffickers, more than 22,000 turn backs and the seizure of millions of lethal fentanyl doses.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not return ABC News’ request for comment.

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica were the first to report news about the investigation based on emails the outlets obtained. ABC News has not obtained those emails.

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(WASHINGTON) — In a new statement following the resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden on Thursday stressed “the special relationship” between the U.S. and U.K. “remains strong and enduring.”

Biden did not mention Johnson by name or his resignation explicitly, but underscored that the U.S. will continue to work with the U.K. government on critical issues, including the war in Ukraine — an issue Biden and Johnson have worked closely on together.

“The United Kingdom and the United States are the closest of friends and Allies, and the special relationship between our people remains strong and enduring,” Biden said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the government of the United Kingdom, as well as our Allies and partners around the world, on a range of important priorities. That includes maintaining a strong and united approach to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Putin’s brutal war on their democracy, and holding Russia accountable for its actions

Nevertheless, Johnson’s resignation could complicate Biden’s goal to strengthen the Western alliance in the face of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

The two spoke on the issue during a call in April, and “affirmed their commitment to continue providing security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the face of ongoing atrocities by Russia,” according to a White House readout of the conversation.

The two leaders then met in June at a summit of G-7 countries, where they both urged nations to remain united against Russia amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The conflict, entering its fifth month, has roiled global energy markets.

In his remarks Thursday announcing his resignation, Johnson cited Britain’s support of Ukraine as a top achievement.

“I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government, from getting Brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century … and, in the last few months, leading the West in standing up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression in Ukraine,” he said.

“And let me say now, to the people of Ukraine, that I know that we in the U.K. will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes,” he added.

The White House on Wednesday declined to comment on the political drama surrounding Johnson, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States’ “partnership with the United Kingdom continued to be strong.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — In his first network interview, the director of the United States Marshals Service told ABC News the U.S. Marshals Service is focusing on “trigger pullers” — repeat offenders who shoot and kill.

Director Ronald Davis told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that he is using his nearly 30 years in law enforcement to help push the effort.

The U.S. Marshals’ most recent operation, which spanned the entire month of June, dubbed “Operation North Star,” made more than 1,500 arrests in cities such as Washington, D.C., Memphis, New York and Philadelphia among others, and took hundreds of guns as well as narcotics off the street.

“I believe that if you are focusing on those who create the most violence that are responsible for the most violence, two things end up happening. One, you do remove trigger pullers off the street, those who are shooters, and it impacts crime and violence. You also bring justice to the families that have been terrorized by them,” he said in the interview, set to air Thursday evening on ABC News Live “Prime.”

Last year, the Marshals Service arrested nearly 6,000 murder suspects, Davis said.

Speaking in the wake of the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, he said violent crime is an “us problem,” meaning that it touches everyone, regardless of race, creed or background.

“It’s such a ‘we’ problem that you don’t have to be the victim of a violent crime to be impacted by violent crime,” Davis said. “If it is causing you not to go shopping, you’re a victim of violent crime. If it’s caused, you know, not to go to a parade, you’ve been influenced by violent crime.”

It spans political ideology, he continued.

“It’s not left or right,” he said. “There’s no leaning to this. We’re just trying to save lives. And I think that’s the key for the Marshals Service, we look at it as when we’re arresting a fugitives, that we’re bringing justice. But ultimately, we’re hoping that we’re saving lives.”

When there is not a crisis, Davis said that is when community engagement is best.

“It’s when there’s not a surge in violence that you have to engage the community so that when there is a crisis that you come together, you already have a relationship to respond,” he explained.

Davis said that it is now more important than ever for the police to have a relationship with the community, and that for him, policing and community relations is personal.

“It goes with trust and building trust one interaction at a time, one city at a time,” Davis said. “But it is really making sure that our strategies to reduce crime and violence don’t call the kind of collateral damage that we talked about that we are enforcing and protecting the Constitution of the United States, but being very effective and bringing justice to communities.

“As an African-American male, it’s not just communicating to my community, but quite frankly, communicating to my deputies. And with inside the agency, the experience of growing up as a black man in America is unique. And I would hope that that experience that I bring to the job helps me, helps guide me in the decisions that need to make in understanding and having empathy, why people may be hesitant, why there may be apprehension, why there could be a lack of trust,” he said.

Davis said he hopes his experience in law enforcement and as an African American man can help build trust amongst law enforcement, but that even in his own personal life, and as a high-ranking law enforcement official, he still has to sit his son down and have a conversation about how to interact with the police as an African American male.

“The fact that I have to have that conversation, the fact that it’s a mandatory course for families of color means we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “And so there’s this I’ve struggled with over the years, but I’ve come to a reconciliation that both of these truths can coexist. I can accept that the vast majority of men and women in law enforcement are outstanding, but also can accept that we have historical context and practices that still have disparate impacts. And so we need to address both use the outstanding men and women to do so.”

Davis said he is seeing an increase in law enforcement assaults, but does not know the root cause of the increase in violence.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in assaults against law enforcement, against our deputies, within the Marshal Service, our task force officers that the agencies we’re working with,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will award 17 individuals with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The medal is given to those who made “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and actor Denzel Washington are among this year’s recipients.

The ceremony will be held at the White House.

Rapinoe, an advocate for gender equality and LGBTQ rights, said she received a call in between practices from the White House informing her she had received the honor.

“In that moment I spoke to the President, I was, and still am, totally overwhelmed,” Rapinoe said in a statement shared by U.S. Soccer. She also said that she is thinking of “all the people who I feel deserve a part of this medal.”

Late Sen. John McCain will be awarded the honor posthumously, as will Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and former AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.

McCain, a Purple Heart recipient and prisoner of war in Vietnam, has been lauded as a war hero and spent decades serving the people of Arizona in the Senate. The Republican died in 2018 after succumbing to glioblastoma in 2018.

“My family and I are extremely honored that my dad will posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a man who dedicated his life in service of his country, I know my dad would be humbled to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor,” Jack McCain, McCain’s son, said in a statement.

Other former lawmakers to receive the honor are Gabby Giffords, who became a leading voice for gun control after surviving a 2011 mass shooting, and Alan Simpson, who served in the Senate for nearly two decades.

The list of awardees also includes several social justice advocates, including: Sister Simone Campbell, a member of Sisters of Social Service; Fred Gray, a distinguished civil rights attorney whose clients included Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Diane Nash, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Raúl Yzaguirre, who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for 30 years.

Other recipients include Wilma Vaught, one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history; Sandra Lindsay, a nurse who was the first American to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; Khizr Khan, the father of U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq; Father Alexander Karloutsos, a priest who advised several U.S. presidents; and Dr. Julieta García, who was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president.

Biden will be the first president to give out these medals after receiving one himself in 2017. Former President Barack Obama awarded Biden for his “lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.”

Earlier this week, Biden presented four U.S. Army veterans with the Medal of Honor for their “acts of gallantry and intrepidity” during the Vietnam War.

Specialist 5 Dwight W. Birdwell, Major John J. Duffy and Specialist 5 Dennis M. Fujii were awarded the honor at a White House ceremony on Tuesday. John Kaneshiro, the son of Staff Sergeant Edward N. Kaneshiro, accepted the award on his late father’s behalf.

“They went far above and beyond the call of duty. It’s a phrase always used but it just — it takes on life when you see these men,” Biden said during the event.

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