Govt chapter 1

WHY TEXAS GOVERNMENT MATTERS One of the biggest factors that

shapes political life in Texas is immigration. Who comes to Texas-where new residents come from, and how-has a profound effect on Texas's population, economy, and political culture. People come to Texas from other states and from many other countries. Many move to Texas legally and with proper documentation; others come to Texas undocumented. How to manage immigration has become one of the most controversial issues in Texas politics.

On June 8, 2023, Governor Greg Abbott signed six pieces of legislation passed during the 2023 regular session of the Texas state legislature aimed at curtailing the surge of illegal immigration across the border with Mexico and, he said, protecting "Texans and Americans from the chaos and crisis of the border."1

This legislation built upon Operation Lone Star, a state initiative Abbott launched in March 2021 for addressing the failings of federal immigration policy along the southern border. In May 2021, Abbott issued a disaster declaration covering 53 counties, which enabled him to deploy Texas National Guard troops and police officers from the Department of Public Safety. Five hundred Texas National Guard troops initially were sent to the Texas-Mexico border in the spring of 2021. Over 12,000 troops were deployed soon after, along with 1,000 Department of Public Safety personnel.

The mission of these Department of Public Safety and National Guard personnel was not the enforcement of federal immigration law; that is the sole responsibility of the federal government. The mission of these state and local law officers was rather to enforce the trespassing penalties on private property that had been expanded under the emergency declaration. The National Guard forces, in turn, were tasked with arresting individuals for border related crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.

According to Governor Abbott's office, Operation Lone Star has been a tremendous success. As of June 2023 there were 390,000 undocumented migrant apprehensions, more than 30,000 criminal arrests, and 28,000 felony charges. In addition, over 420 million doses of fentanyl were seized. Operation Lone Star was accompanied by two other border control initiatives. The state began a program to bus migrants to far-away northern cities. By the summer of 2023 almost 28,000 migrants had been bused to such cities as Washington D.C., New York City, and Chicago. The idea of the busing program was simple: to have other northern cities experience the cost of handling undocumented migrants crossing the Texas-Mexico border. Even more controversial was a program put into place in June 2023 to place a series of buoys in the Rio Grande and razor wire fences along the border to make entering Texas more difficult and dangerous.3

Democrats and other media critics like ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, and the Marshall Foundation were not impressed with Abbott's statistics about Operation Lone Star, claiming that shifting metrics were being used by the governor and the Department of Public Safety. Data on arrest and drugs seizure efforts did not separate out carefully the enhanced efforts of DPS and the National Guard from the ongoing activities of other public agencies fighting crimes in the targeted counties. Thus, critics argued the governor overestimated the impact of Operation Lone Star on immigration and border security policy. The busing initiative, too, was subject to criticism by critics claiming that newly arrived migrants crossing the border did not understand exactly where they were going or why. The buoy and razor wire programs were subject to the most criticism as being cruel and inhumane. The Biden Administration maintained that Texas was intruding into federal policy jurisdiction, rejecting Governor Abbott's claim that Texas was simply helping to repel an invasion from across the border. Mexico was also critical, claiming that the buoys were on their side of the border, which violated an international treaty-in effect since the late 1800s-assuring movement up and down the river.4

The debate over Abbott's border control actions reflects the political cleavages that divide citizens in the state. As we will see throughout this book, Democrats and Republicans in Texas are deeply divided on many issues, including immigration. A recent survey conducted by the University of Texas in February 2023 found that 49 percent of Texas Republicans felt that immigration and border security should have been the top legislative priority during the regular legislative session. Only 3 percent of Democrats agreed with them