Texas Gov. Greg Abbott draws backlash for comment about ‘shooting migrants’

Gov. Greg Abbott is facing blowback after lamenting on a conservative talk show that Texas can’t shoot migrants illegally crossing the border because “the Biden administration would charge us with murder.” 

Abbott’s comment came Jan. 5 during an appearance on former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch’s talking head program. Loesch asked the Republican governor “what can be done, like right up to the line,” by the state to step up border enforcement — even if it draws challenges from federal authorities.

Abbott trumpeted Texas’ efforts to build a border wall and place barriers in the Rio Grande along with its recently passed law that would allow local police to arrest people they suspect of crossing the border illegally.

“The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” Abbott said.

The progressive social media account Heartland Signal shared Abbott’s comments online Thursday afternoon.

Abbott’s violent rhetoric comes as he’s escalated Texas’ fight with the White House over whether the state has power to enforce immigration — something courts have repeatedly ruled is a federal responsibility. Amid a surge in recent border crossings, the governor has falsely claimed that the Biden administration maintains an “open borders” policy and is refusing to stop illegal immigration.

In the latest such fight with the feds, state officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering and patrolling a public park in the border town of Eagle Pass, CBS News reports.

Democrats and civil rights groups wasted no time in blasting Abbott for his comment about shooting migrants.

“This is hateful, dangerous, sick rhetoric from a sitting governor … in the United States of America,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, tweeted. “These are desperate men, women and children seeking asylum in America — just as people from Europe and every part of the world have done for generations.”

In an emailed statement, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa accused Abbott of engaging in a “bloodthirsty approach to governance.”

“Time and time again, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it abundantly clear they have no morality or humanity,”  Hinojosa said. “Their only solutions to ‘secure’ the border are separating families, medieval death traps, and mass imprisonment of migrants and Texans who are perceived to be undocumented by law enforcement. This is the same rhetoric endorsed by domestic terrorists such as the El Paso shooter, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and former President Donald Trump – who recently echoed Adolf Hitler by accusing immigrants of ‘poisoning the blood of our country.'”

This isn’t the first time Abbott’s been called out on his anti-immigrant rhetoric. 

In 2019, shortly after a gunman killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, claiming in an online screed that he was thwarting a “Hispanic invasion,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a sort-of apology for invoking similar terms in a fundraising mailer sent out the day before the tragedy.

Abbott’s mailer urged fellow Republicans to “DEFEND TEXAS NOW” from immigrants and “take matters into our own hands.”

Despite saying “mistakes were made” in wording his fundraising letter, Abbott has since resumed use of the term “invasion” to describe the surge in migrant crossing. Immigrant advocates argue that the term has its basis in a racist conspiracy theory that progressives want open borders because they seek to dilute the power of “white America.”

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This article appears in Jan 10-23, 2024.