“Under this novel system, the State of Texas has created its own immigration entry and re-entry crimes; state police arrest noncitizens for alleged violations of these crimes; state prosecutors bring charges in state courts; state judges order deportation; and state officers carry out those orders,” the ACLU said in its complaint. “The federal government has no role in, and no control over, Texas’s scheme.”
Texas has taken other aggressive steps to make the state more hostile to undocumented immigrants. One of its most well-known practices is busing or flying newly arrived migrants and asylum-seekers to major cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In recent years, Abbott has also deployed the state national guard and other law enforcement agencies to the border in a show of force and sought to erect new physical barriers to deter crossings.
Some of those efforts have received tentative approval from the federal courts, at least for now. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is known for its conservative rulings, issued an order this week to block the Biden administration from cutting through a concertina-wire barrier that state officials had placed along the Rio Grande (an exception was made for emergencies, like providing medical aid to an ill or injured migrant). That order will keep the barrier intact while litigation unfolds.