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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas criticized Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration enforcement policies at The Texas Tribune Festival on Friday, saying his policies are unprecedented and have sometimes caused havoc.
“This is the first time in my 20 to 22 years of government service that I see a state act in direct contravention of national interests,” Mayorkas told Laura Barrón-López, the White House Correspondent for PBS News Hour.
In March 2021, Abbott announced Operation Lone Star. This state mission has deployed state troopers and state National Guard soldiers to different parts of the 1,200-mile-long Texas-Mexico border to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally.
As part of the mission, the state has built more than 30 miles of a wall near the Rio Grande; soldiers have laid out several miles of concertina wire on the riverbank that has resulted in several migrants being seriously injured; and contractors have laid out a 1,000-foot-long water barrier on the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. Texas has also sued several times to halt the Biden administration’s immigration policies, which provide a pathway for some Latin American migrants to enter the U.S. legally.
The Texas Legislature last year approved a law known as SB 4 that would allow police in Texas to arrest people who are suspected of crossing the Rio Grande illegally from Mexico into Texas.
The state has also chartered buses of migrants from Texas border cities to what Abbott has described as sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants, such as Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles.
Mayorkas said Texas busing migrants to other cities without coordinating with those city officials is “incomprehensible to me from the point of view of responsible governance.”
“Is it purely to wreak havoc and disorder in the receiving communities to make a political point?”
In 2022, the state also conducted secondary inspections of commercial trucks at the Texas-Mexico border, resulting in delays for Mexican truckers trading with the U.S. The secondary inspections were done after immigration officials already inspected the trucks. State police found zero drugs, weapons or any other type of contraband, according to data released by the Department of Public Safety to The Texas Tribune.
“It reeked of economic havoc,” Mayorkas said.
The Biden administration has sued Texas to prevent SB 4 from going into effect and let Border Patrol agents cut through the concertina wire to arrest migrants who have already crossed the river.
Immigrant rights advocates have demanded the Department of Justice investigate whether Texas has violated the civil rights of people who have crossed the border, many of whom are seeking political asylum.
During the Biden administration, Border Patrol agents have seen a historic number of migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border. But in the past few months, apprehensions have been at their lowest levels since 2020.
The governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to an after-business-hours email from The Texas Tribune seeking comment.
As The Texas Tribune's signature event of the year, The Texas Tribune Festival brings Texans closer to politics, policy and the day’s news from Texas and beyond. Browse on-demand recordings and catch up on the biggest headlines from Festival events at the Tribune’s Festival news page.