Taking heat for saying Texas
isn't shooting migrants who are illegally entering the state from Mexico
because "the Biden administration would charge us with murder," Gov.
Greg Abbott said Friday he wasn't actually advocating gunplay in his efforts to
stop unauthorized border crossings.
"I was asked a question to
legally distinguish between what Texas has the legal authority to do and what
would be illegal to do," Abbott told reporters a day after his remarks to
a conservative talk show host about Texas' border control initiatives Thursday
were posted on social media. "And I explained in detail all the different
things that Texas is doing that we have the legal authority to do, and pointed
out what would be illegal to do."
In the 38-second audio clip,
posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Heartland Signal, Abbott tells host Dana
Loesch that Texas is "using every tool" from building border barriers
to enacting a state law making it a crime to enter Texas without legal
authorization.
"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 told
Loesch.
At a news conference Friday in
Austin, the three-term Republican said he was not being flippant and no one
should construe his remarks to mean that undocumented immigrants attempting to
cross the Rio Grande should be shot.
But some Democrats noted that
remarks carrying violent connotations can be seized on by violence-prone people
with tragic consequences. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa
called the remark a "bloodthirsty approach to governance."
He likened Abbott's comment to
one then-President Donald Trump said in the months leading up to the Aug. 3,
2019, deadly mass shooting in El Paso targeting Hispanics that the nation
"has been invaded by hundreds of thousands of people coming through
Mexico."
The shooter in El Paso used
similar language in a screed published online before he opened fire at a
crowded shopping center. U.S. Rep Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents
El Paso, reacted to Abbott's comments with dismay.
"I can't believe I have to
say 'murdering people is unacceptable,'" Escobar said on social media.
Court battle Justice Department
sues Texas, Gov. Abbott over state law allowing migrant arrests, deportations
The migrant shooting comment
notwithstanding, Abbott has sustained national attention for his hard-line
policies aimed at securing the Texas-Mexico border, which he has said has
become intolerably porous during President Joe Biden's three years in office.
At Friday's news conference, the
governor defended his action to seize control of Eagle Pass' riverside Shelby
Park, and to deny the U.S. Border Patrol access to the site on the border.
"Texas has the legal
authority to control ingress and egress into any geographic location in the
state of Texas," Abbott said. "And that authority is being asserted
with regard to the park in Eagle Pass, Texas, to maintain operational
control."
The U.S. Homeland Security
Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to force the state of Texas to
allow federal border officials to operate in the park and on the adjoining
section of the Rio Grande, saying the Texas National Guard was blocking U.S.
Border Patrol operations.
"Border Patrol agents in a
vehicle towing a boat to launch on the boat ramp requested access to Shelby
Park, but the Texas National Guard refused to permit them to access the
area," the federal agency said in the court filing. "Border Patrol
agents likewise requested access to the staging area and Texas National Guard
refused.
"The boat ramp that Texas
has blocked off is the only safe and operationally practical boat ramp with
access to the relevant portion of the river."