Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, fed up with apparent inaction from President Joe Biden on the current immigration crisis at the Southern border, has approved sweeping new powers that will allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross into the US.
The law will also give local judges authority to order migrants to leave the country with about 2,000 crossing over the border with Mexico every day – pushing the limits of how far a state can go to enforce immigration laws.
The law, known as SB4, takes effect in March, and allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people who are suspected of entering the country illegally.
Those who re-enter face penalties ranging from 180 days in jail to 20 years in prison.
Once in custody, they could either agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry.
Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law – denounced by critics as the ‘Show Me Your Papers’ bill – that was largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law will likely face a quick legal challenge by the Biden Administration, which has taken the Governor’s previous attempts to reduce the flow of migrants to court.
Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed three bills into law at a border wall construction site in Brownsville
More than 1,000 migrants wait in line to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on Monday in Eagle Pass, Texas
Migrants wait to climb over concertina wire after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, seen in September in Eagle Pass, Texas
Abbott, who signed the law in front of a section of border fence in Brownsville, predicted the number of people crossing illegally into Texas would drop by ‘well over 50%, maybe 75%.’ He did not offer evidence for such an estimate.
Abbott accused President Joe Biden of doing ‘nothing to halt illegal immigration.’
‘Joe Biden’s deliberate inaction has decimated America,’ Abbott said.
‘The consequences of [the new law] are so extreme that the people being smuggled by the cartels, they will not want to be coming into the state of Texas,’ he said.
Abbott claimed that some eight million people have crossed the border illegally since Biden, a Democrat, took office in January 2021.
Abbott defended the new law as constitutional, saying Texas had been left to ‘fend for itself.’
He said the bill passed by the Republican-majority Texas state legislature last month was needed to ‘stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas.’
Abbott said the bill makes it a ‘criminal offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation.
‘For repeat offenders it creates the offense of illegal reentry with a potential prison sentence term of up to 20 years,’ he said.
The bill also ‘provides a mechanism to order an illegal immigrant to return to the foreign nation from which they entered,’ he said.
Migrant crossings have remained at roughly 2,000 per day within the Del Rio Sector with most of those being encountered Venezuelans, Hondurans, and Colombians.
The law adds another tension point over immigration amid a struggle between the White House and Senate negotiators to reach a deal on border security.
Republicans in Congress are demanding changes to the immigration system in exchange for any help for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs.
Texas Republicans have increasingly challenged the U.S. government’s authority over immigration, saying President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t doing enough to control the 1,950-mile southern border.
The state has experimented with a range of measures to deter people who cross illegally under its Operation Lone Star, including deploying National Guard troops to the border, blocking migrants with deadly concertina wire and installing a floating barrier over a stretch of the Rio Grande.
Texas has bused more than 65,000 migrants to cities across America since August 2022 and recently installed razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande, which has snagged and injured some asylum-seekers.
A three-judge panel of 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month ruled that Texas must remove the floating barrier although Texas is seeking a review by the full court.
In the state’s most prominent action, it has bused 65,000 migrants to Democrat-controlled cities across America since August 2022 to alleviate the strain on its border cities and pressure Democrats.
Still, migrants have continued to cross
Abbott signed into law sweeping new powers that allow police to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally and gives local judges authority to order them to leave the country
Local organizations in Brownsville, Texas, held a rally before a news conference announcing the governor’s signing of three bills broadening border security policies in the state
A migrant who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico to the U.S. works their way through and over concertina wire and box car barriers in Eagle Pass, Texas
The U.S. government on Monday temporarily shut down two railroad border crossings in Texas, a move that rail operators said would hamper trade ahead of Christmas.
Troy Miller, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner, said the closures at Eagle Pass and El Paso were a response to more migrants traveling on freight trains, particularly over the last week.
Miller said authorities are seeing ‘unprecedented’ arrivals at the border, topping 10,000 crossings on some days this month.
Shortly after Abbott signed the new law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said it would challenge the measure in court.
More than 20 congressional Democrats also signed a letter urging the U.S. Justice Department to sue to stop the law, known as Senate Bill 4.
‘SB 4 is dangerous for the people of Texas and interferes with the federal government´s exclusive authority over immigration and foreign affairs,’ the letter read.
In this aerial view, Texas National Guard troops direct a group of more than 1,000 immigrants towards a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after the migrants crossed the Rio Grande
A line of immigrants is seen in Eagle Pass, Texas having crossed over from Mexico
In this aerial view, Immigrants, many wearing mylar blankets supplied by the U.S. Border Patrol, try to stay warm after spending the night outside a processing center next to the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday
A surge as many as 12,000 immigrants per day crossing the U.S. southern border has overwhelmed U.S. immigration authorities in recent weeks
Mexico’s government also has rebuked the measure. Under bilateral and international agreements, Mexico is required to accept deportations of its own citizens, but not those of other countries.
Under the Texas law, migrants ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the border with Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens.
In September and October, Venezuelans were the largest nationality arrested illegally crossing the U.S. border.
During debate in the Texas House in November, GOP state Rep. David Spiller pushed back against concerns that the law would be used as a dragnet to arrest immigrants statewide.
He said enforcement would mostly take place in border counties. But he also rebuffed several efforts by Democrats to narrow the law, including a proposed carve-out for police on college campuses.
Because the illegal entry charge is a misdemeanor, which has a statue of limitation of two years, Spiller has said the law will not be used to target immigrants who have long been settled in the U.S.
‘This is not, ‘Round up everyone who is here illegally and ship them back to Mexico,” he said during debate over the bill.
Opponents have accused Texas Republicans of using the law as a vehicle to force the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority to revisit its landmark 2012 Arizona decision.
At the time, Justice Anthony Kennedy said Arizona may have ‘understandable frustrations’ with immigrants who are in the country illegally but that it can’t pursue policies that ‘undermine federal law.’