Texas pivots from feuding with Biden over the border to providing the blueprint for Trump
6 min read
Texas is quickly becoming the blueprint for how incoming Trump officials expect to work with states on border security – a stark pivot from recent years when it was the epicenter of a bitter feud between state and federal officials.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott challenged President Joe Biden at almost every turn on the handling of the US southern border, as the state grappled with multiple border surges. The ongoing feud has resulted in a slew of lawsuits over Texas’ operations and public spats over the handling of the border.
As part of his Operation Lone Star, launched in 2021, Abbott transported migrants on buses to Democratic-led cities, blocked a portion of the border to federal agents, set up buoys in the Rio Grande to deter migrants, and signed a bill into law that would give state law enforcement the authority to detain migrants, among other measures.
The state also recently announced a new unit of troopers that will patrol the border on horseback. “We’re not letting up at all,” Abbott said last week on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
In a spate of recent announcements, Texas said it would offer up to 1,400 acres of land for the government to use for detention centers and introduced a new unit of troopers to patrol the border on horseback.
Those moves have frustrated the Biden White House. But Texas’ preparations to bolster its operation on the US southern border is serving as a roadmap for how President-elect Donald Trump’s team plans to lean on states as part of its immigration plans, according to two sources familiar with discussions.
In a sign of the changing nature of the relationship, Trump is weighing one of Abbott’s senior advisors — Texas border czar Michael Banks — to lead US Customs and Border Protection, according to multiple sources.
CNN reached out to the Trump transition for comment.
On Tuesday, incoming border czar Tom Homan will join Abbott, Banks and other state officials to serve meals to Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, and deliver remarks along the Texas-Mexico border, according to the governor’s office.
Trump has previously praised Abbott, touring a part of the Texas-Mexico border alongside the governor earlier this year. The Biden administration has criticized the effort, arguing that the governor used migrants as “political pawns” and disrupted federal operations.
But Trump’s team is, in part, banking on state cooperation to fulfill the president-elect’s campaign promise of mass deportation by shifting state resources to help agents along the US southern border and free up federal personnel to detain undocumented immigrants in the US, according to two sources.
State authorities are often limited in how they can assist since the enforcement of immigration law is a federal responsibility.
Abbott described the upcoming border actions as a coordinated effort between border states and Washington.
“While we work on deporting people, we also have to be equally successful at denying illegal entry. … This is going to require ongoing vigilance by Texas, by other states, as well as by the Trump administration,” Abbott said on Fox Business last week.
Texas has often been among the busiest regions for migrant crossings and, over recent years, the state has wrestled with record surges that overwhelmed state and federal resources. Republican governors rushed to back Abbott, including sending National Guard troops to aid his efforts.
Texas officials and federal officials have historically worked together on the US-Mexico border. But Abbott’s operation went a step further. Homeland Security officials argued that the initiative impeded federal operations and some Texas national guardsmen took issue with the deployment.
Migrant crossings have plummeted in recent months — and both Texas and the Biden administration have taken credit. Texas state officials tout the work of their operation, arguing it served as a deterrent, and federal officials cite Biden’s executive action that levied harsher consequences for border crossers.
Mixed expectations among Texas authorities
Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County, which shares roughly 16 miles of the border with Mexico, said he’s cautiously optimistic the situation along the US southern border will improve and, as a result, that Operation Lone Star can wind down.
He hopes greater federal involvement will allow his own deputies to focus on non-immigration related calls rather than trespassing or high-speed chases with smugglers.
“It’s a huge relief when you get a phone call to go get a cat out of a tree versus, you know, ‘We just had 15 people break into a ranch house’,” he said.
It’s unclear, though, whether the federal government will reimburse Texas for any of the $11 billion the state has allocated for Operation Lone Star. Coe, a Republican, said he would like to see Washington repay local landowners who’ve had property damage or lost revenue due to migrant crossings.
Perhaps no county has seen more of a state law enforcement presence from Operation Lone Star than Maverick County, which covers Eagle Pass, one of the main focal points for migrant crossings in the past few years and site of multiple legal disputes.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, a Democrat, is taking a “wait-and-see” approach with the incoming Trump administration. While he largely supports Trump’s pledge of mass deportation, he fears the initiative will be costly and take away from federal grants that help sheriffs pay for equipment and overtime to deal with border enforcement.
“We do need that money,” he said.
Schmerber expressed concern over federal officials potentially asking his department — located more than 200 miles from the ranch land purchased by the state — to help detain migrants until they’re deported. Schmerber said his jail has broken pipes, leaky ceilings and a capacity of only 250 people.
“If they can help us with all that, I’d be glad to detain more people with the assistance of the federal government,” he said.
An anticipated change in the courts
The open arms with which the Trump administration is expected to welcome Operation Lone Star comes after the Biden administration repeatedly dueled in court with Texas over its entrées into immigration enforcement.
The legal fights have included battles over barbed wire that state officials erected on the border with Mexico, which the Department of Homeland Security said was interfering with federal immigration activity, as well as an ongoing tussle over buoys Texas constructed in the Rio Grande.
The Biden Justice Department also obtained a court order blocking a 2021 Texas program that targeted those who transport migrants who had been released from custody.
A major pending case is the Justice Department challenge to a Texas law that would allow states officials to arrest and detain people suspected of illegally entering the country.
The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals paused the law, but the conservative appeals court has yet to hand down its ruling from a fuller review of the dispute, which tees up the question of what role states can play in an immigration space that has historically been dominated by the federal government.
At oral arguments in April, a lawyer for Texas said that state lawmakers wanted to go right up to the edge of existing Supreme Court precedent that reaffirms the federal government’s overwhelming authority over immigration matters.
If the Trump administration switches postures in the case and tells the courts that it should uphold Texas’ statute, the lawsuit will continue as immigrant advocacy groups and the city of El Paso have intervened to challenge the law as well.
The group is bringing their own arguments – beyond the DOJ’s federal supremacy claims – to allege that the Texas measure is unlawful.
Immigration advocates are already expecting other states to move forward with legislation like SB4, and those efforts would get a boost if the 5th Circuit upheld the Texas approach.
“Texas has really been a lab for how mass round-ups of immigrants would work and how you can practically do it,” said Kristin Etter, the director of policy and legal Services at the Texas Immigration Law Council.,
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