Mayorkas: Texas’ Immigration Policies Have Wreaked Havoc and Disorder

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas criticized Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration enforcement policies at The Texas Tribune Festival on Friday, saying his policies are unprecedented and have sometimes caused havoc.

“This is the first time in my 20 to 22 years of government service that I see a state act in direct contravention of national interests,” Mayorkas told Laura Barrón-López, the White House Correspondent for PBS News Hour.

In March 2021, Abbott announced Operation Lone Star. This state mission has deployed state troopers and state National Guard soldiers to different parts of the 1,200-mile-long Texas-Mexico border to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally.

As part of the mission, the state has built more than 30 miles of a wall near the Rio Grande; soldiers have laid out several miles of concertina wire on the riverbank that has resulted in several migrants being seriously injured; and contractors have laid out a 1,000-foot-long water barrier on the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. {snip}

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The state has also chartered buses of migrants from Texas border cities to what Abbott has described as sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants, such as Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles.

Mayorkas said Texas busing migrants to other cities without coordinating with those city officials is “incomprehensible to me from the point of view of responsible governance.”

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