Texas National Guard Deputized to Make Immigration Arrests at Southern Border

Migrants congregate on the banks of the Rio Grande at the U.S. border with Mexico on Dec. 20, 2022, where members of the Texas National Guard cordoned off a gap in the U.S. border wall. Morgan Lee/AP Photo

The Texas National Guard has struck an agreement with the Trump administration to arrest and detain illegal immigrants, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Sunday.

The pact between Texas and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) means the Texas National Guard may investigate, arrest, and detain illegal immigrants and assist in deporting them.

Guard members must do this work under CPB supervision and be in contact with a CBP official by cellphone or radio.

“In an agreement I signed between Texas and Trump’s Customs and Border Protection, the Texas National Guard is granted the power of immigration officials to make immigration arrests,” Abbott posted late Sunday on the social media platform X.

The authority is effective immediately, the governor said. “This boosts manpower for border security.”

The move could be seen as controversial, as the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 had heretofore prohibited armed forces from patrolling U.S. streets for the purposes of civilian law enforcement.

The Defense Department had already assigned 1,600 active-duty troops to the U.S.–Mexico border in Trump’s first week in office with plans to increase that number to combat drug smuggling and mass illegal immigration.

Abbot in January signed five executive orders directing state agencies to assist the Trump administration in securing the southern border.

As part of that, last week Abbott sent 400 soldiers from military bases in Texas to support CBP at the southern border, in addition to the thousands of National Guard soldiers already there assisting CBP. The governor also sent C-130s and Chinook helicopters.

Retired Deputy Chief of Border Patrol Matthew Hudak welcomed the move.

“This agreement sends a clear message that cooperation and collaboration between state and federal agencies is once again part of the border security strategy and will help stop smugglers and keep border communities & our country safer,” he said in a statement on X.

Texas Border Action Under Trump

Abbott has undertaken numerous border actions since Trump took office. On Jan. 27, the governor ordered the Texas Military Department to send the Texas Tactical Border Force to the Rio Grande Valley to work alongside the U.S. Border Patrol. The governor also deployed C-130s and Chinook helicopters.

On Jan. 28, Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Public Safety to send tactical strike teams to support homeland security during the course of investigating and arresting criminal illegal aliens.

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

On Jan. 29 Abbott also directed the Texas Military Department to work with the United States Northern Command along the southern border.  That same day the governor directed state agencies to work with the Trump administration on border issues.

Abbott’s Executive Orders also include ordering the Guard to share intelligence on Mexican cartels with federal authorities.

In addition, state agencies are to work with federal agencies to increase border barriers to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the state.

Abbott also ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Facilities Commission to locate Texas land and facilities federal partners can lease for the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.

Operation Lone Star

The Texas Guard has since 2021 been deployed at the border for Operation Lone Star, in which they played a part in the busing of tens of thousands of illegal aliens to “sanctuary cities,” which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and placing giant buoys in the Rio Grande, which separates Texas and Mexico.

Texas Guard members were also empowered at the time to apprehend illegal immigrants for trespassing charges in 2021. The order, however, applied only to private property on the border.

The governor’s office credits Operation Lone Star with reducing illegal immigration in the state by sending them on to sanctuary states such as Washington, D.C., which received 12,500 illegal immigrants. Texas has also sent illegal immigrants to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles since 2022.

“Operation Lone Star continues working to undo the damage done by the Biden Administration,” Abbott’s office said in a statement. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to open border policies.”

Under Operation Lone Star, Texas has apprehended 530,800 illegal immigrants and made more than 50,470 criminal arrests with more than 43,290 felony charges. Since the operation’s launch in March 2021, Texas law enforcement has also seized more than 623 million lethal doses of fentanyl, which, according to the press release, is “enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.”

The state has also decreased illegal crossings by 87 percent over that same period.

White House Targets Cartels

On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

“The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States,” reads the White House press release. “In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society. The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.”

Last week, the U.S. Consulate issued a travel advisory along the border due to gun battles and IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

The Associated Press contributed to this report