What Did Texas Governor Greg Abbott Say About Shooting Migrants?

A few weeks before a series of laws designed to curb illegal immigration in Texas take effect, Governor Greg Abbott uttered what appear to be his harshest words yet against migrants.

In a move reminiscent of Donald Trump's approach, Abbott lamented that Texas authorities cannot shoot migrants who cross the border illegally because the federal government could charge them with murder.

In an interview with Dana Loesch, former spokesperson for the National Riffle Association (NRA), Abbott emphasized the measures that Texas has implemented under his administration to limit the entry of immigrants across the southern border.

The excerpt in reference was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Heartland Signal, a digital radio station based in Chicago.

Some of the measures the governor mentioned include building the border wall, placing barriers and buoys on the Rio Grande, and imposing laws that allow local authorities to arrest immigrants for the crime of crossing the border illegally.

Some of these laws, including those funding the border barrier and making illegal border crossings a state crime, go into effect in early March. The human smuggling law goes into effect in early February.

"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.

Abbott's phrases echo those made by Donald Trump eight years ago, just before the Iowa caucus. (This year, the caucus will take place on Jan. 15.)

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump said at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. "It's, like, incredible."

One of the first to react to Abbott's words was Beto O'Rourke, the former U.S. Representative (TX's 16th Congressional District) and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate (he unsuccessfully ran against Abbott in 2022), who posted on X: "The governor of Texas says he'd kill more immigrants if it weren't illegal."