Texas Governor Orders National Guard to Return Migrants to Border

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday authorized state security forces to apprehend and transport migrants to the border with Mexico, taking over powers from federal agents and testing the legal limits in his attempt to reduce the number of illegal crossings. .

“I have signed an executive order authorizing the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Homeland Security to return illegal immigrants to the border. The cartels have been emboldened by the open border policy of [el presidente Joe] Biden,” Abbott said in a tweet sharing the order. “Texas is taking unprecedented action to crack down on these illegal initiatives.”

The federal government is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, but for more than a year, Texas has patrolled the border with an increasingly heavy hand.

Republican Abbott did not go so far as to authorize Texas police officers and members of the National Guard to take migrants through ports of entry and drop them off in Mexico. That disappointed former Trump administration officials, who for months have pressed Abbott to declare an “invasion” underway and order state forces to forcibly remove migrants from the country.

But Abbott’s move remains a significant expansion of the normal powers of the National Guard and state police, which have so far turned migrants over to Border Patrol agents, and in some cases made arrests on state trespassing charges. privately owned. He, too, raises questions about their training in detaining and transporting migrants, and is likely to face challenges in court.

The illegal crossings are on your level highest or close to it in the last two decades. At the Texas border, federal authorities prevented 523,000 illegal crossings between January and May, up from 417,000 crossings in the same period a year ago.

Abbott has blamed the administration of President Joe Biden and has spent more than $3 billion in state funds on a massive border security mechanism. But the state operation has not stopped the flow of migrants.

“As the challenges at the border continue to mount, Texas will continue to take steps to address those challenges brought on by the Biden administration,” Abbott said.

Customs and Border Protection officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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