BROWNSVILLE — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law Monday that allows police to detain immigrants who cross the U.S. border illegally and gives local judges the authority to order them to leave the country, amid the unprecedented migrant rush to what the country faces.
Critics have called the measure the most drastic attempt by a state to control immigration since Arizona’s 2010 law, which was largely overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also expected that the Texas law will be quickly challenged in court.
Texas is one of the states most affected by undocumented immigration. Abbott has asked President Joe for help Biden to stop the migratory avalanche that affects the country, but so far the governor’s demand has not found an echo in the Democratic administration.
Wave continues without stopping
Enforcement of immigration laws is federal jurisdiction. But Texas Republicans have tested those limits more and more intensely under President Biden to respond to a crisis affecting that border state with Mexico, and they allege that the federal government is not doing enough to prevent people from entering. illegally in the country.
Texas has sent more than 65,000 migrants to other cities in the country and has installed barbed wire on the banks of the Rio Grande (or Grande); However, the wave has not stopped.
More than eight million encounters are reported by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) since Biden has been in office. Republicans accuse him of promoting an open border policy that has created chaos at the border and affects major cities in the United States.
Closure of railway border crossings
Separately, on Monday, Customs and Border Protection temporarily closed two railroad border crossings in Texas so its agents could help process immigrants. Chaos takes hold at the border, while Republicans condition the approval of funds that Biden requests to finance the war in Ukraine, in exchange for border security. They consider that migration is an issue of national security and that the country must first be secured.
Railroad operators said closures at Eagle Pass and El Paso would hamper commerce before Christmas.
The new law signed by Abbott allows any Texas police officer to arrest people suspected of having entered the country illegally. Once detained, they could accept a Texas judge’s order to leave the United States or be prosecuted for a misdemeanor charge of illegal entry. Immigrants who do not comply with the order could be arrested again for serious crimes.
In the absence of Biden
Legal experts have described the measure as a violation of the federal government’s powers in immigration matters. The Mexican government also rejected the measure. In the United States, some pro-immigrant groups have attacked Biden for not having stopped Texas’ aggressive border measures sooner.
But the governor assures that he is acting in the absence of President Biden. Abbott said that so far this year they have arrested 489,500 undocumented immigrants, made more than 37,500 arrests of criminals, seized 450 million lethal doses of fentanyl, and transported more than 80,000 migrants to Democratic-run sanctuary cities.
Democrats complain about the high costs to taxpayers of the presence of immigrants without legal status.
Source: With information from AP and Editorial
