Abbott tests feds by urging Texas troopers to return migrants to border
Source: Washington Post
Abbott tests feds by urging Texas troopers to return migrants to border
By Arelis R. Hernández
Updated July 7, 2022 at 10:11 p.m. EDT | Published July 7, 2022 at 8:54 p.m. EDT
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state National Guard soldiers and law enforcement officers Thursday to apprehend and return migrants suspected of crossing illegally back to the U.S.-Mexico border, testing how far his state can go in trying to enforce immigration law — a federal responsibility.
The order comes days after a group of right-wing Texas officials — alongside a few former Trump administration leaders and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) — asked the Republican governor to invoke the state and U.S. constitutions in declaring an “invasion” at the southwest border and to use his powers to repel it. The leaders of the sparsely populated counties near the border with Mexico complain that they have been overrun by smuggling attempts and increasing numbers of migrants evading detection.
The order appears to be unconstitutional, legal experts said, and may have little practical impact on Abbott’s ongoing, expensive and controversial border security initiative, Operation Lone Star. But it represents an escalation for the governor, who is running for reelection and eyeing national office, in a broader drama full of anti-immigrant rhetoric and legally dubious actions designed to challenge the federal government’s exclusive powers over immigration enforcement — potentially all the way to a conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/07/texas-abbott-immigration-enforcement/
Non-paywalled link: https://wapo.st/3uyTXI2
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