Greg Abbott Says the Only Thing Stopping Texas From Shooting Migrants Is the Headache of Potential Murder Charges

As governor of Texas, Greg Abbott has a horrific record when it comes to immigration, from sending more than 100 migrants to a freezing-cold DC on Christmas Eve to a “hold-the-line” operation on the border that could lead to more drownings. Yet he’d like credit for one thing, and that’s the fact that he hasn’t given local officials the greenlight to literally shoot migrants crossing into Texas—but only because he doesn’t want to deal with being charged with murder.

Appearing on The Dana Show last week, Abbott declared: “We are using every tool that can be used from building a border wall to building these border barriers, to passing this law that I signed that led to another lawsuit by the Biden administration where I signed a law making it illegal for somebody to enter Texas from another country…. 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.”

Not surprisingly, Abbott’s remarks have seen considerable blowback. “Time and time again, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it abundantly clear they have no morality or humanity,” Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. Representative Veronica Escobar wrote on X: “I can’t believe I have to say ‘murdering people is unacceptable.’ @GregAbbott_TX. It’s language like yours that left 23 people dead and 22 others injured in El Paso.” (In 2019, the day before 23 people were killed in a mass shooting in El Paso by a gunman who railed against a “Hispanic invasion,” Abbott’s campaign warned in a fundraising mailer that “liberals” had a “plan to transform Texas—and our entire country—through illegal immigration.”)

In the same interview, Abbott defended his decision to install razor wire barriers on the border, which the Biden administration has sought permission from the Supreme Court to remove. “In the history of America, have you ever seen a president try to prevent a state from securing his own safety?” Abbott asked. “We laid down this razor wire, hundreds of miles of it that was an effective deterrent and repelled migrants from entering the state of Texas. And because it was so effective, Biden ordered the Border Patrol to either cut it or to lift it.”