Abbott signs law allowing Texas to arrest migrants, setting off a federal showdown
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday escalated his challenge to President Biden’s border policies by signing a measure that would allow law enforcement officials in Texas to arrest migrants entering the state from Mexico without legal authorization, setting the stage for a showdown with the federal government.
Mr. Abbott pushed for the legislation, which passed last month during a special session of the Republican-dominated state Legislature over strong objections from Democrats, immigrant rights groups and Latinx organizations who argued the measure violated with the US Constitution and would encourage racial discrimination. profiling.
Some border sheriffs have also opposed the legislation, expressing concern that it could quickly overwhelm local jails and courts if even a fraction of those crossing the border daily were arrested. In just one section of the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border, around the towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, federal agents have met 38,000 migrants in October.
The surge of migrants has become a political liability for President Biden, who has been criticized by Republicans and some Democrats for the record number of arrivals at the southern border under his watch.
In signing the bill, Mr. Abbott, a third-term Republican, took his most direct step yet by challenging the Biden administration over federal immigration policy, which is currently being negotiated between the president and Congress.
“Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas behind,” Abbott said at a signing event at the border wall in Brownsville, Texas.
The Texas law takes effect in March and is likely to be dragged through the courts in the following months, just as the presidential and congressional campaigns intensify. Legal experts have said the legislation could give the U.S. Supreme Court the opportunity to revisit a 2012 case, Arizona v. United States, which was narrowly decided in favor of the federal government’s power to control immigration policy determine.
Over the past two years, Mr. Abbott has steadily escalated a multibillion-dollar state-level border enforcement program known as Operation Lone Star, which deployed thousands of National Guard troops and state police on a mission to patrol the border indefinitely.
Under the program, state police have arrested thousands of migrants on trespassing charges. But these arrests could only be made on private property, and with the permission of the landowner. And these efforts have not deterred illegal crossings, which continue to occur at high levels.
The new law makes it a crime to enter Texas from Mexico anywhere other than through legal ports of entry. It would also allow migrants to be ordered back to Mexico during legal proceedings or face prosecution if they do not agree to go. A second offense would be a misdemeanor.
Federal immigration officials said Monday closed international railway bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso so that border agents could be deployed to process the large number of arriving migrants there.
Crossing between ports of entry is already a crime under federal law. But federal agents often prosecute migrants only for their second offense, allowing many of those crossing for the first time, especially women and children, to enter the country.
As a result, Mr. Abbott and other Republicans in Texas have argued that federal law is not being enforced as they think it should be. The state’s new law does not allow migrants seeking asylum to avoid arrest or prosecution unless their asylum claim has already been granted, a process that could take years.
Mr. Abbott has taken other steps to draw attention to the border surge, including installing razor wire along the Rio Grande and transporting tens of thousands of migrants from border towns in Texas to Democratic-run cities such as New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Opponents have vowed to file a lawsuit to prevent the law from taking effect.
“It is very much our view that Texas has no authority to police and prosecute immigration crimes,” said David Donatti, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “We will go to federal court to ensure they can never do this again.”
The governor also signed into law Monday about $1.5 billion in additional funding for the state’s border barrier construction.
Lawmakers have not provided funding to support additional arrests or prosecutions of migrants or estimated the associated costs. To handle misdemeanor arrests under Operation Lone Star, Texas has already built special processing areas and reserved space in state prisons, which serve as a jail for migrants held on misdemeanor charges.
Ryan Urrutia, the patrol commander for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, said the sheriff did not support the legislation out of fear it would sow distrust of law enforcement in the predominantly Hispanic community. Mr. Urrutia said the office had projected it could add about $6 million in annual costs to El Paso County, though he cautioned, “No one knows.”
Local or state police officers – such as sheriffs, Texas Rangers or city police officers – could legally make an arrest up to two years after the alleged crime. That raises the question of how police officers far from the border can determine whether someone has crossed illegally without asking for immigration documents, a tactic that critics fear could lead to racial profiling.
Rep. David Spiller, the Texas Republican who introduced the bill in the state House, said the new law would not lead to these types of investigations. “I think most of the enforcement will happen at the border, where agents see people coming across the border,” Mr. Spiller said in an interview on the “Y’All-itics” podcast. He added that he believed the legislation was “not inconsistent” with the 2012 Supreme Court case.
But before the bill passed with Republican majority support, a Republican senator warned that the legislation would actually violate the Constitution, which he said gave the federal government authority over immigration enforcement.
“We are setting a terrible precedent by invalidating our obedience and allegiance to our Constitution,” said Sen. Brian Birdwell, a conservative Republican from south Dallas. in a speech on the floor of the Senate. “President Biden’s failure to obey his oath does not force us to violate ours.”