Austin, Texas — Four C-130 military transport planes loomed on the tarmac at Austin International Airport, doors open as the sun lit up a news conference called by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
As Abbott began speaking Monday from a lectern reading “Secure the Border,” about 200 National Guard soldiers rushed onto the planes.
“They will be deployed to hot spots along the border to intercept, repel and deport immigrants trying to enter Texas illegally,” the governor said, barely audible over the roar of engines. Then he turned around to watch the planes take off.
In the short term, Texas has been preparing for the end of Title 42 by creating teams of soldiers who can immediately go to areas where large numbers of migrants arrive. That has been the strategy in cities like El Paso, where authorities said soldiers have been placing miles of barbed wire near the border and being more present to discourage crossings.
“The wave of migrants will come before Title 42 ends, that’s what’s happening,” said Maj. Sean Storrud, commanding hundreds of National Guard soldiers deployed in El Paso.
For two years, Texas has waged a multimillion-dollar effort to stop and deter migrants entering the state from Mexico, deploying helicopters and drones, disguised National Guard soldiers patrolling the border and state police patrolling the highways in black and white off-road vehicles. The state has bused thousands of immigrants to East Coast cities like New York and covered the banks of the Rio Grande with barbed wire.
But the number of crossings into Texas has only increased.
Now, a new wave of migrants is arriving at the US border as a public health measure known as Title 42, which for the past three years had allowed the government to expedite large numbers of migrants who they reached the border.
Texas is doubling down on its response, not only sending more soldiers and police to the border, but also pushing through legislation that would impose new state sanctions on migrants and human smugglers, as well as create a border police force and “border protection courts” to enforce state controls.
Abbott, a Republican, blames the Biden administration for undermining the efforts his state has made so far to limit the number of immigrants arriving from Mexico.
“If we acted in isolation, we would have secured the border,” he said. “While Texas is doing everything possible to keep people from crossing the border, the President of the United States is laying out the welcome mat for them,” he added.
The legislative actions, some of which the state House of Representatives is expected to pass this week, would expand and make permanent elements of the border control program that Abbott unveiled in March 2021, known as Operation Lone Star. Through this program, Abbott pushes the boundaries of what the law allows, using his power as governor to send the National Guard and state police to the border and using state trespass laws to detain immigrants when They cross private land.
But states can’t enforce federal immigration law, that’s up to the federal government, and Abbott has so far resisted calls from some far-right conservatives to declare that Texas is being invaded, order state police to detain any immigrant found in Texas and deport them to Mexico.
For now, when National Guard troops or state troopers find migrants at the border, most often they turn them over to US Border Patrol agents, who take custody of them under federal law, a process that allows many to stay and apply for asylum.
The bills now before the state Legislature—particularly a measure that would make it a state crime to cross immigrants from Mexico into Texas—would go a long way toward a more direct role for the state in immigration enforcement. and could conflict with current constitutional precedents, according to several legal experts.
Civil rights groups, immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers have opposed the bills as a cruel distraction from the need to help desperate people heading to the United States after fleeing poverty and violence. . “The real issue at the border is that this is a humanitarian emergency, so we need a humanitarian response,” said Alexis Bay of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “We have seen all kinds of deterrent policies, but people keep coming to the border.”
It is not known if the soldiers who left Austin were sent on a known mission, but at least they were given a new name (the “Texas Border Tactical Force”), which resembles the name of the border police force nationwide. that is being considered by Republican leaders in the state House.
Mike Vickers, who leads the Texas Border Volunteers, said his group had patrolled private land to act as lookouts and report suspicious activity to authorities for 16 years.
“We think it’s a great idea,” he said of the bills. He added that the opposition to the legislation came from “all those democrats” who believed it would mean “a bunch of gringos out there wanting to stop anyone with brown skin. It’s stupid. But that’s his mentality.”
Last month, Vickers appeared at a rally in Austin along with musician Ted Nugent and other conservative figures to support the legislation and urge Abbott to more directly confront the federal government on immigration enforcement.
“It remains to be seen how this civilian unit will function,” Vickers said. “But if they can coordinate it with law enforcement, I think it will be great.”
