As migration rates have risen significantly in border states across the country, Texas is taking a firm stance and is engaging in a tug of war with the federal government over who has the ultimate authority.
This past Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the state would start constructing an operation base in the border city of Eagle Pass that could hold up to 2,300 soldiers This would create the most considerable military infrastructure that has been built in the state toward curbing the illegal crossing of migrants from Mexico.
“This will increase the ability for a larger number of Texas military department personnel in Eagle Pass to operate more effectively and more efficiently,” Abbot reported in his announcement, which he publicly delivered as he was flanked by a row of armed members from the National Guard. He added that the camp “will amass a large army in a very strategic area.”
Although Texas has been deploying National Guard troops and state police officers back and forth on the state’s border since 2021, this latest move to create an 80-acre base camp emphasizes the presence of a substantial law enforcement structure in the region and indicates Texas’ dedication to asserting a security role that almost exclusively belonged to the federal government prior to these developments.
This multifaceted crackdown at the border initiated by the Abbott administration is known as Operation Lone Star, and recently, and there have been debates within the federal court in Austin over whether to halt the implementation of a new law, set to be enacted on March 5, that would allow state and local police officers to directly arrest illegal migrants as a preemptive move to deporting them.
Abbott isn’t the only state official who has begun testing the legal limits of what states can do to enforce immigration law, as a recent statement signed by the Republican governors of 25 states in January vowed to stand alongside Texas in its resistance to federal policies and authority, which they argue have not done enough to enforce existing legislation.
Several of Abbott’s political cohorts, including the governors of Florida and Georgia, have sent their own National Guard troops to assist in patrolling the Texas border.
The Biden administration continues to contest Texas’ proposed legislation, claiming that it conflicts with federal law and violates the U.S. Constitution, which gives the federal government authority over immigration matters.
