Greg Abbott Rages at Texas Being Stripped of Powers: 'Unacceptable'

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has responded with fury to a provision in the new bipartisan Senate border security bill that would block the state of Texas from challenging some of its provisions via the local federal court.

On X, formerly Twitter, Abbott shared a Newsweek article titled 'Texas Stripped of Powers in Border Security Bill,' adding: "This is unacceptable."

The bill sets out the circumstances under which suspected illegal immigrants can request a judicial review of their deportation orders, stating: "The United States District Court for the District of Columbia shall have sole and original jurisdiction to hear challenges, whether constitutional or otherwise, to the validity of this section or any written policy directive, written policy guideline, written procedure, or the implementation thereof."

Responding to this section on X Bill Shipley, a former federal prosecutor, wrote: "This would prevent plaintiffs - like the State of Texas - from filing suit in Texas federal courts. This is corrupt."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House press office for comment by email.

The proposed immigration reforms are part of the $118 billion Emergency National Security Supplemental Bill which was announced on Monday following cross-party Senate negotiations involving Republican Sen. James Lankford, Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

In addition to the immigration reform, designed to address a surge in illegal crossings across the southern border, the bill would provide an additional $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, along with assistance to Israel and Taiwan.

On immigration it includes a provision that illegal migrants can be removed with little legal recourse if the number detected rises above an average of 5,000 per week, or 8,500 in a single day. Another $20 billion is also made available for hiring additional border control officers and border security infrastructure.

However, the deal has been rejected outright by many Republicans who argue it doesn't go far enough in addressing illegal immigration, including Speaker Mike Johnson who warned it would be "dead on arrival" in the House.

Posting on his Truth Social website, Donald Trump, by some margin the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican Party nomination, commented: "Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill."

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has argued moving the bill forward would be "entirely foolish" in the face of fierce GOP opposition. He said: "It is clear that there is no path for this bill to pass. The Speaker of the House has been unequivocal that the Senate bill is dead on arrival in the House. So I asked my colleagues why on Earth would they be pushing a bill that divides the Republican conference, that unites all the Senate Democrats and has zero chance of ever passing into law?"

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday urged Republicans to back the bill, commenting: "Everyone agrees the border is a mess. For years our Republican colleagues have demanded we fix the border, and all along they said it should be done through legislation... Well, we are producing legislation in a bipartisan way, and now, unfortunately, many on the hard-right are turning their back on this package."

Some Republicans have suggested they could pass the additional aid to Israel in a separate bill, but this has been rejected by the Biden administration.