Abbott orders state police to help federal agents with immigration enforcement

Department of Public Safety Special Operations agents escort a group of migrants through private property near Brackettville on Nov. 9, 2021. Agents turned the migrants over to Border Patrol. (Credit: Gabriel V. Cárdenas for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune)

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered the Department of Public Safety to help federal immigration agents find and arrest immigrants who have arrest warrants.

“These teams will coordinate with [U.S. Department of] Homeland Security agencies to track down the thousands of illegal immigrants with active warrants across Texas and deport them from our country,” Abbott said in a statement.

According to Abbott, 5,400 immigrants in Texas have an arrest warrant. He didn’t say what type of crimes the warrants are for.

In recent days, teams of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been spotted in a number of Texas cities searching for undocumented immigrants, often accompanied by agents from other federal agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Since March 2021, Texas has allocated more than $3 billion in immigration enforcement operations under Operation Lone Star, which includes sending state troopers and National Guard soldiers to parts of the 1,200-mile-long Texas-Mexico border to arrest people crossing the Rio Grande.

President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a top priority for his administration and has supported Abbott’s immigration efforts. Texas repeatedly sued the Biden administration, targeting many of its immigration policies, some of which provided migrants legal pathways to legally enter and stay in the U.S.

Trump said at his inauguration that Abbott will be a key partner in his administration’s immigration plans. Trump said Abbott is a “popular governor, and now he's an unbeatable governor because of [his] border policies.”