Texas to arrest migrants crossing border illegally under new state law
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[December 19, 2023]
By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed a law
allowing state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of crossing
the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, giving local officers powers long
delegated to the U.S. government in a move likely to trigger legal
challenges.
The law, known as SB 4, will take effect in March and create a new state
crime for illegal entry or re-entry into Texas, with penalties ranging
from 180 days in jail to 20 years in prison. Texas magistrate judges
will be required to order migrants to return to Mexico, with up to
20-year sentences for those who refuse to comply.
Migrants who cross illegally can already be charged with illegal entry
or re-entry under federal laws but Abbott has sharply criticized U.S.
President Joe Biden for failing to enforce them.
"Biden's deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself," Abbott
said during a press conference in front of a stretch of state-funded
border wall in Brownsville, Texas.
Abbott also signed a bill that would devote $1.5 billion to border wall
construction and other operations, funding that comes on top of $5
billion in state funds already appropriated for border enforcement. The
Republican governor in late November signed into law a measure to
increase penalties for human smuggling.
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Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border since Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. Abbott and other
Republicans blame Biden, who is seeking re-election in 2024, for rolling
back restrictive policies of former President Donald Trump, the leading
candidate for the Republican Party nomination.
In the U.S. Congress, Republicans have said they will not approve a
foreign aid package that includes military funding for Ukraine and
Israel unless it includes strict new U.S. border security provisions,
leaving the aid stalled as a group of senators try to find a compromise.
More than half of the 5.8 million migrant arrests under Biden took place
in Texas and neighboring New Mexico, at times straining the resources of
border cities.
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![](../images/121923PIX/news_m20.jpg)
Texas Governor Greg Abbot attends the event for Republican
presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump during
his visit at the southern border in Edinburg, Texas, U.S. November
19, 2023. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
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Texas 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.
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 thousands of
migrants to Democrat-controlled cities further north to alleviate
the strain on its border cities and pressure Democrats.
Still, migrants have continued to cross.
Oni Blair, executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union
of Texas, has threatened to sue over SB 4, saying it "overrides
federal immigration law" and "fuels racial profiling."
The Supreme Court in 2012 struck down key parts of a similar Arizona
law, including a provision that allowed state officers to arrest
people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
The 2012 ruling said the provision conflicted with federal law,
which took precedence, and that the U.S. immigration system put in
place by Congress generally did not authorize state officers to make
warrantless arrests of people suspected of being in the country
illegally.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by
Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles;
Editing by Mary Milliken, Aurora Ellis and Deepa Babington)
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