The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, on Monday signed a bill giving all police in the state sweeping new powers to arrest migrants deemed to have entered the US illegally as well as empowering local judges to order their expulsion back across the US-Mexico border.
The hard-right Republican’s actions represent a brazen challenge to the federal government’s authority over the enforcement of US immigration law.
The law passed the Republican-dominated Texas legislature last month, over the angry objections of Democratic lawmakers.
Legal experts have previously said the legislation defies US law – and Abbott can almost certainly expect a court challenge from the federal authorities.
Mexico’s government had also criticized the measure when it was being debated in the Texas legislature, warning it would result in family separations and racial profiling.
Texas arresting migrants is not new. Within six months of Joe Biden taking office as a Democrat in the White House in 2021, Texas state troopers began making agreements with private landowners whose properties abut the border with Mexico and arresting migrants who crossed their properties – not for alleged immigration offenses covered by federal law, but for trespassing, in an audacious workaround.
But the new law is designed to empower all police in Texas to arrest migrants suspected of illegally crossing into the US. Under Abbott’s plan, the alleged offense would be classed as a misdemeanor and a local judge could order the defendant to leave the country.
Critics say that apart from racial profiling, the law could prompt the wrongful arrest of US citizens and immigrants who are in the country legally. Democrats have also said it would make immigrant crime victims afraid to contact police.
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