Col. Freeman Martin is the first Texas Ranger to lead the state Department of Public Safety. (Photo by Matt Hennie)
As Freeman Martin takes charge of the Texas Department of Public Safety, he brings experience with Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial border security effort.
Texas has a new top cop.
Col. Freeman Martin was sworn on Monday in as the 14th director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, a massive law enforcement agency with more than 11,000 employees that oversees an array of services from drivers licenses to border security, a sex offender registry and traffic enforcement.
Martin, who started as a Highway Patrol trooper in 1990 and is the first Texas Ranger to lead DPS, made it clear as he took office that border security is a top priority.
“This appointment is the honor of my lifetime,” Martin said during the change of command ceremony at DPS headquarters in Austin. “Texas is a law and order state and we will not give up one square inch of this state to cartels, to gangs, to violent offenders, or to crime.”
“We are going to work with our federal partners and for once and all, we are going to secure the southern border with Mexico,” he added.
Prior to his elevation to director, Martin oversaw the agency’s homeland security operations and efforts at the border, which include providing air, ground and marine resources to Operation Lone Star. Gov. Greg Abbott has spent more than $11 billion on the operation since launching it in March 2021, hoping to stem the flow of drugs and migrants along the state’s 1,250-mile border with Mexico. It also provided Abbott with a political battering ram to pummel President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats across Texas over illegal immigration.
Abbott referenced Martin’s experience with border security during the ceremony on Monday.
“As deputy director, Freeman Martin put public safety first, from the roadways that needed to be patrolled to our communities that needed to battle back against growing gang problems, to working with us on Operation Lone Star to make sure that we are able to secure the border, to doing things on a moment’s notice, such as keeping campuses safe to responding to natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey,” Abbott said.
“He has a wealth of experience,” the governor added.
Operation Lone Star launched with a horrible rollout that included pay and equipment issues and poor living conditions for Texas Military Department personnel, according to the Texas Tribune. The rollout was also marred by a handful of suicides by soldiers. The problems led Abbott to appoint Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer to head the agency amidst a leadership shakeup in March 2022.
Suelzer was among the guests Martin recognized at the ceremony on Monday.
“Gen. Suelzer is one of our best partners — Operation Lone Star day and night for the last three and half years, four years,” Martin said.
Abbott’s efforts at the border have seen mixed success. The operation has apprehended more than 526,600 migrants, scored more than 48,700 arrests and seized over 553 million doses of fentanyl, according to Abbott’s office. But experts question whether the initiative actually decreases migrant encounters at the border.
The operation has also overwhelmed county court systems along the border, seized a city park in Eagle Pass, installed deadly floating border barriers, subjected migrants to being shot with pepper balls, and had troops spying on them via WhatsApp.
Abbott, though, is unfettered.
On Nov. 26, he served Thanksgiving meals to troopers and soldiers stationed along the border as part of Operation Lone Star with Tom Homan, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to become his border czar. A day later, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals handed Abbott a win, ruling that the federal government can’t remove 29 miles of razor wire the operation installed near Eagle Pass.
Abbott’s efforts at the border could also get a boost if he wins the court battle over Senate Bill 4. The controversial law, which was supposed to take effect in March, allows state police to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally — usurping the role of the federal government to enforce immigration law.
