Abbott's Order on Migrants Sets Up Clash With US Agencies

Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday directing the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety to take undocumented immigrants to the Mexican border and leave them there. The order sets up a confrontation with the federal government, which has responsibility for enforcing immigration law, the Texas Tribune reports. The text even calls the federal government out. "As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration," it says, per KXAN.

White House officials didn't immediately comment. An immigrants rights organization dismissed Abbott's move as "another disgusting political stunt," calling it overreach and "a huge waste of state taxpayer dollars." The governor has faced pressure from fellow Republicans to declare "an invasion" of Texas, which they say would let him invoke war powers and the National Guard forcibly deport migrants—a scheme criticized by legal experts. Abbott also has said it might lead to federal prosecution of Texas law enforcement. The Thursday decision disappointed former officials in Donald Trump's administration, per KPRC. The Center for Renewing America, which is led by some of them, said Abbott's order should have mandated expelling migrants. "Otherwise this is still catch and release," a statement said, per the AP.

The order raises questions. The ports of entry are staffed by federal immigration officers, and it's not clear what Texas officers would do with the migrants they take there. A former head of the US Immigration and Nationalization Service said doesn't follow where Texas would derive the authority to transport people it suspects of breaking immigration law. "Were they to do that, I think that raises pretty basic civil rights violation questions," Doris Meissner said. The US Supreme Court has said state authorities can only enforce immigration law if the federal government allows them to, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnik, of the American Immigration Council. (More immigration law stories.)