AUSTIN, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to Maj. Gen. Tracy R. Norris, Adjutant General of the Texas National Guard, on Tuesday, July 27, instructing the guards to use the Texas Department of Public Security to arrest individuals on “state charges.” Connection with the border crisis “to support.”
During the Governor’s Border Security Summit in Del Rio in mid-June, Governor Abbott announced that those who “commit criminal trespassing or other state crimes will be arrested and detained”.
“This order builds on the governor’s disaster statement directing DPS to enforce all federal and state criminal laws, including criminal trespassing, smuggling and human trafficking,” Governor Abbott’s office said in a press release.
“In order to respond to this catastrophe and to ensure the rule of law on our southern border, more personnel are needed – in addition to the soldiers of the DPS and soldiers of the Texas National Guard who I have already deployed there – and DPS needs help with the arrest of those who violate state law, ”it says in the letter. “Due to the power and authority conferred on me by the constitution and laws of the state of Texas, I hereby direct that the Texas National Guard assist DPS in enforcing Texas law by arresting law breakers at the border.”
Critics have previously raised concerns about governors using members of the Guard to take an active role in law enforcement. Other GOP governors have sent members of the National Guard to the border in recent months, including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential candidate who flew to Texas this week to screen about 50 members of the Guard, who have volunteered for a 30-day assignment.
Kate Huddleston, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, described Abbott’s recent orders as “unusual and extremely worrying.”
“We are concerned about asylum seekers and other migrants coming to the United States, and we are also concerned about border residents who have in the past and are doing the brunt of this border law enforcement saturation,” Huddleston said.
In addition to being unclear how members of the Texas National Guard would assist with arrests, Abbott did not say how many members of the current mission would be part of the effort. Abbott was vague in making other announcements regarding border security, including his plans to continue building Trump’s border wall without giving a schedule or total cost.
The arrests to date by Texas soldiers have been in Val Verde County, where local officials said only individuals traveling alone would be arrested, not family units. The prisoners are being held in a former empty state prison in Dilley, Texas, about 100 miles north of the border town of Laredo.
District Judge Lewis Owens, the top elected official in the nearly 50,000-resident district, said crimes such as home break-ins, theft and property damage have increased in recent months as border crossings have remained high. Violent crimes are not an issue, he said.
US officials reported this month that they met 55,805 family members with children in June, 25% more than the previous month. That number is still well below the high of 88,587 in May 2019.
READ THE LETTER HERE
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)