Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety appeared on “The Sara Carter Show” last week to talk about his department’s newest duties. Governor Greg Abbott recently launched an initiative to integrate DPS with the Texas National Guard to tighten border security.

While their main duties tend to pertain to criminal activity and traffic violations, DPS is lately pitching in to help with the border crisis, too. Since the governor launched Operation Lone Star on March 4th till now, Olivarez says they’ve seen 35,000 migrants cross the southern Texas border. That is a number “we have never dealt with before,” Olivarez says. So, they’ve got 1,000 troopers, investigators, Texas Rangers, tactical operators, marine aircraft and Intel personnel dedicated to the border.

Olivarez says that their efforts are helping national security, because many of the contacts they make are with migrants smuggling weapons. “We’re talking about military grade weapons, fully automatic weapons, 50 caliber rifles that are coming across, going into Mexico to supply the cartels. And it is a threat, it is a threat because they’re within miles from the southern border,” the lieutenant said. He’s also found others smuggling currency and narcotics.

“Just all we can say is regardless of political views,” Olivarez said, “there is a crisis right now that’s taking place, and we got to do something about it.”

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