Texas officials aim to help Trump deport millions of undocumented migrants

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

President-elect Trump has vowed to carry out the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Texas says it’s eager to help. Stella Chavez of The Texas Newsroom reports.

STELLA CHAVEZ, BYLINE: Texas recently offered President-elect Donald Trump 1,400 acres of state-owned land along the border in South Texas to use to build immigrant detention facilities. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham spoke about her land offer on Fox News Digital.

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DAWN BUCKINGHAM: I am a hundred percent on board with the Trump administration’s pledge to get these criminals out of our country. And we are more than happy to offer our resources to facilitate those deportations.

CHAVEZ: While Trump has said his administration will prioritize deporting migrants who’ve committed crimes, he’s also broadly promised to deport all migrants in the country illegally. Since President Biden took office, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has funneled billions of dollars into an immigration enforcement effort he calls Operation Lone Star. He’s deployed hundreds of state troopers and miles of razor wire on the border to deter illegal crossings. He extended a floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, and he filed scores of lawsuits against the Biden administration. Abbott also bused tens of thousands of migrants to blue states. Joshua Trevino is with the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. He says he now expects Operation Lone Star to work in conjunction with the federal government’s efforts.

JOSHUA TREVINO: There’s going to be a lot of deportations. There’s going to be a greater focus on border security. But I think how that’s done, we don’t know what that looks like yet. So we, too, in the policy community are waiting to see.

CHAVEZ: State officials, including Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, did not respond to our interview requests. Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Fox News that Trump will undoubtedly pull from his Texas playbook when he returns to the White House in January.

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CHRIS OLIVAREZ: We’re going to remain proactive in what we’re doing. And I’m sure the administration is going to rely on Texas helping them carry out their policies.

CHAVEZ: That help could come from Texas’ own laws, the ones proposed and passed. State Representative David Spiller’s district covers rural parts of North Texas. He recently filed several new immigration bills. One enhances the punishment for certain state crimes for people with no legal status in the country.

DAVID SPILLER: So you think, OK, we’ve done what we need to. We have President Trump in office. Why do we need to do something else? Well, because there’s more that we need to do and that we can partner with the federal government to do.

CHAVEZ: There’s also Senate Bill 4, a new law that gives local and state police the authority to arrest and detain individuals suspected of entering Texas illegally. The Biden administration and advocacy group sued to stop it from taking effect. It’s currently tied up in federal court appeals. Kristin Etter, director of policy at the nonprofit Texas Immigration Law Council, says now those legal challenges could very well go away.

KRISTIN ETTER: We anticipate that all the pending litigation, including Senate Bill 4, will be dropped by the Trump administration, which means Senate Bill 4 likely going into effect in the spring of 2025.

CHAVEZ: Texas, with its long border with Mexico, often leads the U.S. in annual migrant border encounters, though numbers have dropped in 2024. Clint McDonald, a retired sheriff, is now director of the Texas and Southwestern Border Coalition (ph). He says most sheriffs along the border are eager to work with the new administration. But he warns – they aren’t immigration officers and don’t have the budget for border enforcement.

CLINT MCDONALD: It’s a very touchy situation, where our sheriffs want to do everything they can. But at the same time, they’ve got to look at what the budget will allow them to do.

CHAVEZ: Although many details are still unknown, Trump advisers say he won’t waste any time in taking steps to limit border crossings and launching his deportation plans soon after taking office in January.

For NPR News, I’m Stella Chavez in Dallas.

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