Gov. Greg Abbott told Border Patrol agents at a National Border Patrol Council convention dinner in San Antonio on Sunday that a new memorandum of understanding gives the Texas National Guard authority to investigate, arrest and remove people in the country illegally. He pointed to state-built National Guard residential bases along the Rio Grande and “hundreds of miles” of razor wire as evidence that the state’s measures are working.
According to WOAI, the dinner began at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk and featured Abbott alongside National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez. The station reported that Abbott praised agents as “an essential core element of keeping our communities safe.”
Abbott described the memorandum as a “multiplication of forces” that “enhances your capabilities, our capabilities, America's capabilities,” and told the crowd they are “fully authorized and empowered” to perform their duties, the station said. He also suggested some critics are “ideologically against law enforcement,” according to WOAI.
State measures the governor highlighted
Abbott has repeatedly pointed to on-the-ground operations, including National Guard camps and miles of barrier wire, as the backbone of the state's border strategy. The governor’s office has defended those deployments and described Operation Lone Star as the mechanism behind expanded state activity along the Rio Grande, per a statement from the Office of the Governor.
Legal questions and federal pushback
The federal government has pushed back before. In 2023 the Justice Department sued Texas over a floating buoy barrier on the Rio Grande, arguing the state violated the Rivers and Harbors Act and other statutes. Reporting at the time detailed the suit and the broader tensions that have followed. Analysts say the rising use of deputization and state-federal pacts complicates the legal landscape. The Migration Policy Institute has documented how deputization agreements and other local partnerships have expanded interior immigration enforcement in recent years.
What to watch next
Abbott’s on-stage characterization of a new memorandum of understanding will be scrutinized if the agreement itself is released or if federal agencies publicly weigh in. For now the substance of any expanded powers rests on the governor’s remarks. A posted memorandum or formal federal sign-off would clarify whether the state’s role is growing or will draw fresh legal challenges.
