CNN
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Texas is becoming a blueprint for how incoming Trump officials hope to work with states on border security. This is a significant shift from recent years, when the state was the epicenter of a bitter feud between state and federal officials.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has challenged President Joe Biden at nearly every turn over his handling of the U.S. southern border as the state grapples with multiple border surges. The ongoing feud has led to numerous lawsuits over how Texas is run and public fights over the handling of the border.
As part of “Operation Lone Star,” launched in 2021, Mr. Abbott transported migrants by bus to Democratic-led cities, closed portions of the border to federal agents and moved to Rio to deter immigration. They installed buoys in the Grande River and signed the bill. This would give state law enforcement the power to detain immigrants, among other things.
The state also recently announced the creation of a new unit to patrol the border on horseback. “We’re not letting our guard down at all,” Abbott said on Fox News’ “Hannity” last week.
In a series of recent announcements, Texas said the government would provide up to 1,400 acres of land for detention centers and bring in new troops to patrol the border on horseback.
These moves have frustrated President Biden. But Texas’ preparations to ramp up operations on the U.S. southern border are a sign of how President-elect Donald Trump’s team plans to rely on the state as part of its immigration plan, two people familiar with the discussions said. It is said that it is functioning as a roadmap.
“We need to work together. We need to work together,” one of the sources told CNN. “The last few years we’ve had to do it at a higher level.”
In a sign of the changing nature of the relationship, Trump is considering appointing one of Abbott’s senior advisers, Texas border czar Michael Banks, to head U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to multiple sources. It is said that they are doing so.
CNN has requested comment on Trump’s transition.
On Tuesday, incoming border czar Tom Homan joined Abbott, Banks and other state officials to provide meals to members of the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety along the Texas-Mexico border, the governor’s office said. He is scheduled to give a speech.
President Trump previously praised Abbott, who toured parts of the Texas-Mexico border with the governor earlier this year. The Biden administration criticized the effort, claiming the governor was using immigrants as “political pawns” and obstructing federal government operations.
But Mr. Trump’s team is relying in part on state cooperation to support agents along the U.S. southern border and free up state resources to detain federal agents to detain illegal immigrants in the United States. The move is said to be an attempt to fulfill the president-elect’s campaign promise of mass deportations. 2 sources.
Because immigration law enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, state authorities are often limited in how they can help.
Abbott described future border actions as a coordinated effort between border states and Washington.
“While we are working to deport people, we must be equally successful in denying illegal entry. …This requires continued vigilance by Texas, other states, and the Trump administration.” “It’s going to be,” Abbott said on FOX Business last week.
Texas is often one of the busiest areas for immigrants to enter the country, and in recent years the state has been plagued by record surges that have overwhelmed state and federal coffers. Republican governors rushed to support Mr. Abbott, including deploying the National Guard to support him.
Texas state and federal authorities have historically cooperated on the U.S.-Mexico border. But Abbott’s surgery went a step further. Homeland Security officials argued the initiative would impede federal operations, and some members of the Texas National Guard objected to the deployment.
Immigrant arrivals have plummeted in recent months, giving credit to both Texas and the Biden administration. Texas officials have touted the success of the operation, saying it served as a deterrent, and federal officials have cited Biden’s executive actions that imposed harsh penalties on border crossers.
Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County, which shares about 26 miles of the U.S. border with Mexico, said cautiously that the situation along the U.S. southern border could improve and result in an end to Operation Lone Star. He said he was optimistic.
He hopes that expanded federal involvement will allow his own lawmakers to focus on non-immigration-related calls rather than high-speed chases with trespassing and smugglers.
“It’s a lot more comforting to get a call to go get a cat out of a tree than to get a call saying, ‘There’s just 15 people breaking into your ranch house,'” he says.
However, it is unclear whether the federal government will reimburse Texas for the $11 billion the state allocated to Operation Lone Star. Coe, a Republican, said he wants Washington to reimburse local landowners who suffered property damage and loss of income due to the arrival of immigrants.
Perhaps no more has we seen the presence of state law enforcement from Operation Lone Star than in Maverick County, which covers Eagle Pass, which has been one of the major immigration border focuses in recent years and the subject of multiple legal disputes. I don’t think there is any county that did that.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber (Democrat) is taking a “wait-and-see” attitude toward the incoming Trump administration. He generally supports President Trump’s promise of mass deportations, but the idea would be expensive and would require sheriffs to pay for equipment and overtime to deal with border security. They are concerned about the loss of helpful federal aid.
“We need that money,” he said.
Schmerber expressed concern that federal authorities could ask the department, more than 320 miles away from the ranch land the state purchased, to help detain the immigrants until they can be deported. Schmerber said his prison has broken pipes, leaks in the ceiling and only has a capacity for 250 people.
“If they can help us with all of this, we would be happy to detain more people with federal assistance,” he said.
The Trump administration is expected to fully welcome Operation Lone Star after the Biden administration repeatedly battled Texas in court over its entry into immigration enforcement.
Legal battles include a dispute over barbed wire that state officials have installed on the border with Mexico, which the Department of Homeland Security says is interfering with federal immigration efforts, and a dispute over barbed wire that Texas has built along the Rio Grande River. This includes an ongoing dispute over a buoy that was
The Biden Justice Department also obtained a court order blocking a 2021 Texas program targeting those transporting immigrants released from custody.
The main pending case is the Justice Department’s challenge to a Texas law that allows state authorities to arrest and detain people suspected of entering the country illegally.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked the law, but a conservative appellate court has yet to issue a fully considered decision on the dispute, which could potentially limit the country’s ability to move in the historically tough area of immigration. This raises the question of whether the government can fulfill its role. controlled by the federal government.
During oral arguments in April, Texas lawyers said state lawmakers wanted to push to the edge of existing Supreme Court precedent that reaffirms the federal government’s overwhelming authority over immigration matters.
If the Trump administration changes its stance and tells the courts that the Texas statute should be upheld, the lawsuit could continue, as immigrant advocacy groups and the city of El Paso have also stepped in to challenge the law. Become.
Beyond the Justice Department’s assertion of federal supremacy, the group is making its own case that Texas’ action is illegal.
Immigration advocates are already hopeful that other states will move forward with legislation like SB4, and if the Fifth Circuit upholds Texas’ approach, those efforts could accelerate.
“Texas is truly a testing ground for how mass immigration roundups work and how they can be implemented in practice,” said Christine Etter, director of policy and legal affairs at the Texas Immigration Law Council. “It was,” he says.
