Texas Governor Orders Arrest of Illegal Migrants as He Accuses Biden of ‘Refusing to Do His Job’

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has authorized his state’s National Guard and the Department of Public Safety to detain migrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry and return them to US-Mexican border entry points.

The federal government is normally responsible for enforcement of immigration; Governor Abbott stressed in an executive order announced on Thursday that while US President Joe Biden “refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure” the US southern border.

The governor referred to the US Constitution, which he said stipulates that the country “shall protect each [State in this Union] against [a border] invasion.”

The announcement comes after former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli said he wanted Abbott to declare an invasion and enact a Title 42-style program, which envisages migrants being “repealed at the border” and automatically turned away.

Cuccinelli’s remarks followed US authorities saying in late June that at least 51 migrants had died after being trapped inside a sweltering tractor-trailer truck found abandoned in Texas. The deceased 39 men and 12 women were discovered on the outskirts of San Antonio, in what became one of the deadliest human trafficking tragedies in recent history.

At the time, Abbott pointed the finger at the “open border policy”, pursued by Biden, who in turn said that the incident “underscores the need to go after the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”

The Biden administration is grappling with increasing border arrivals as US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data revealed in mid-June that that Border Patrol agents apprehended 239,416 illegal migrants on the US southern border in May, a new record high.

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This year, the number of illegal migrants detained every month on the US’ southern border hit two record highs, in March and April, 222,339 and 235,478, respectively, according to CBP.

In a separate development in March, Biden told migrants not to come to US, insisting that there had been a surge in immigration "in the last two years", but that that the current rise "could be" worse.

Former US President Donald Trump, for his part, argued at the time that Biden had "eroded" the successful system that Trump had put in place, and that his policies "were working better than they have ever seen on the southern border."

The crisis on the US southern border began almost immediately after Biden took office in January 2021 and revoked Trump-era immigration policies, including the 45th president’s signature border wall and the “Remain in Mexico” program. Other measures, including promises to “restore and expand” the US asylum system, and to potentially provide a “path to citizenship” for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already residing in the US, led to a further surge in entry attempts.