Abbott challenges feds by ordering Texas soldiers, troopers to return migrants
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.
“I think it is pretty clear under current precedent that this is the type of decision that the federal government gets to make,” said Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “But I also think the most relevant Supreme Court precedent may very well be the target of this policy.”
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled on a series on immigration-related laws, including the S.B. 1070 or “show me your papers” law, passed by the Arizona legislature, affirming that states cannot enforce their own immigration laws.
“I cannot envision a legal argument under which the governor of Texas would be allowed to engage in unilateral immigration enforcement,” said Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. “We don’t want each state enforcing their own immigration laws.”
But Texas has poured billions, including by diverting federal coronavirus relief funding, into its border crackdown, sending thousands of National Guard troops and directing Department of Public Safety officers to help patrol and arrest migrants in southern Texas. With each new step, Abbott is attempting to blur the lines between federal and state authority. The state has bused migrants to Washington, halted commercial traffic on international bridges for what critics called unnecessary inspections, challenged the Biden administration in court and emptied state prisons to jail migrants. It also is raising money to build a border barrier.
The White House criticized Abbott’s latest plan Thursday.
“Governor Abbott’s record on immigration doesn’t give us confidence in what he has cooked up now. His so-called Operation Lone Star put national guardsmen and law enforcement…
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