News/Commentary

DOJ threatens to sue Texas if new state migrant law enforced – Abbott decries ‘such hostility’

December 29, 2023 | | Print Article

The Justice Department is threatening to slap the Lone Star State with a lawsuit if Texas attempts to enforce a new state law that allows police to arrest illegal migrants who jump the border with Mexico.

A Thursday letter written by top DOJ official, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, to Governor Greg Abbott claims the new law, signed by the Republican leader this month, “effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme by imposing criminal penalties for violations of federal provisions on unlawful entry and reentry into the United States … and by authorizing state judges to order the removal of noncitizens from the United States,” NBC News reports.

The law, Boynton argues, is unconstitutional and “undermines the United States’ foreign relations.” The federal government — not the states — is responsible for controlling international borders, Boynton wrote.

As BizPac Review reported, Abbott’s new law packaged together several smaller bills. It “cracks down on repeated attempts to enter Texas by creating the offense of illegal reentry and penalizes offenders with up to 20 years in prison. It also provides the mechanism to order an offender to return to the foreign nation from which the person entered or attempted to enter this state,” according to a press release from Abbott’s office.

It is set to be implemented in March, but Boynton has given Texas until Jan. 3 to confirm that it will not be enforced. Should Abbott ignore the warning, the U.S. “will pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government,” the letter reads.

Meanwhile, the United States and Mexico have agreed to keep the border crossings wide open, according to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

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Speaking at a press conference on Thursday after a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the border crisis, Lopez Obrador announced, “There’s more and more movement on the border, on the bridges, and that’s why we must be careful so that the crossings are not closed. That agreement was reached.”

“The rail crossings and the border bridges are already being opened to normalize the situation,” he told reporters. “Every day there is more movement on the border bridges.”

Abbott took to X and blasted the Biden administration for threatening his state.

“The Biden Admin. not only refuses to enforce current U.S. immigration laws, they now want to stop Texas from enforcing laws against illegal immigration,” he wrote. “I’ve never seen such hostility to the rule of law in America.”

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“Biden is destroying America,” the governor stated. “Texas is trying to save it.”

A spokesperson for Abbott, Renae Eze, said in a statement that Texas is “prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Texans and Americans from President Biden’s open border policies,” according to NBC News.

The outlet reports, “Thursday’s letter comes after U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded a string of back-to-back record daily numbers of undocumented migrants crossing the border.”

On X, many are standing with Texas.

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“Texas MUST protect itself from this INVASION. It’s clear that the Biden Administration has abandoned our State,” wrote one angry user. “It is TREASON for the Biden Administration to allow our Country to be INVADED.”

Melissa Fine
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