"Operation Lone Star"

Recipient of the STAR ONLINE PACKAGE OF THE YEAR award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2025)

Jason Buch, Benjamin Wermund, Matt Zdun
San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle

Shelby Park, a hub for security forces supporting Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star, seen from Piedras Negras on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. Christopher Lee/Staff Photographer

Judge’s Comments:

The investigation revealed that the governor's $110 million budget for Operation Lone Star included many questionable expenses regarding the goal to improve border security using state grants. Among the expenses were fancy law enforcement vehicles and office renovations for public agencies. The accountability journalism by the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle meticulously documented grants allocated to 115 jurisdictions through Texas. The data visualizations and digital interactives allowed taxpayers to search the grants by geography and type. The in-depth probe was a public service for Texas residents.

Gilbert Bailón

Judge’s Bio:

Gilbert Bailón has more than four decades of newsroom leadership experience and now serves as the Deputy Director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Most recently, he was executive editor at WBEZ public radio and Chicago Public Media, which also owns the Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper. Bailon was executive editor at KERA public radio before moving to Chicago.

He was editorial page editor at  the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for four years before he became editor-in-chief in 2012. Under his leadership, the newsroom won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial writing for its coverage of the unrest following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Bailon worked at The Dallas Morning News for more 21 years, starting as a reporter and later becoming executive editor and founding editor/publisher of the Spanish-language daily newspaper Al Dia founded in 2003.

Bailon won the 2014 Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year awarded by the National Press Foundation for leading coverage of the unrest in Ferguson and its aftermath. He is a member of the NAHJ Hall of Fame and a past NAHJ national president.

To read the award-winning coverage from the teams at the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle, click the links below:

LINK to content online
LINK to content online
LINK to content online