Texas Issues Stark Warning as States Take Wildly Different Approaches to Immigration Ahead of Trump 2.0

With one month to go until President-elect Trump’s inauguration, states across the country are ramping up immigration measures and rhetoric — and they are taking wildly different approaches. Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Thursday that he has launched a new “tough medicine” approach to illegal border crossings, as the state has started to erect “dozens of billboards” throughout Central America and Mexico to deter illegal immigrants. The billboards tell the “horror stories” of the dangerous trek, he said, focused on women and girls who are raped by smugglers, gang members, and human traffickers while they make their way into Texas illegally.One billboard reads, “Many girls who try to migrate to Texas are kidnapped,” according to Mr. Abbott who described the signs during a news conference at Eagle Pass, Texas. Another billboard says “Your wife and daughter will pay for their trip with their bodies.” “One asks families thinking about sending their kids here, ‘How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?,’” Mr. Abbott said.The “tough medicine” tactic is necessary, he said, to deter individuals who are thinking about crossing the border illegally. “Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas. For migrants who are now already close to crossing the border illegally, we have billboards providing warning messages in Mexico,” he said. Other billboards read, “Stop. If you cross the border illegally into Texas, you will be jailed.” Another warns, “Don’t come to Texas illegally, you will be arrested.”To ensure maximum reach, he said, the billboards will be in languages including Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. Deportations are expected to start “very early” in the Trump administration, Mr. Abbott said, and Texas is planning to work with the federal government to deport individuals who cross illegally. “The message is: do not risk a dangerous trip just to be arrested and deported,” he said. Meanwhile, California has taken the opposite approach as it attempts to “Trump-proof” the state. The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, has been issuing “Know Your Rights” guidance for immigrants and kicked off a series of workshops this week in response to what he says are “inhumane threats of mass detention, arrests, and deportation” from Trump. “We know that there is a lot of fear and anxiety from California’s immigrant communities stemming from the president-elect’s promise of mass deportations,” Mr. Bonta said in a statement, noting the “challenges ahead.” “Rest assured, if the president-elect breaks the law, we will be ready,” he said. The state has been issuing guidance to migrants to inform them that regardless of immigration status, under California law, they have a right to an attorney, a right to apply for housing, and a right to medical care.“State and local law enforcement cannot ask for your immigration status,” the notices read, adding that local and state law enforcement cannot share personal information for immigration purposes or assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in most circumstances. Illinois, too, is expected to be an immigration battleground as the new administration steps in. Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, has said Chicago is his first priority and has vowed to prosecute the city’s mayor if he tries to “impede” the federal government’s immigration enforcement. Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker, has since questioned Mr. Homan’s “authority” in the area and said that “being a border czar is not an official position in the government,” as the Sun has reported. As Trump’s inauguration rapidly approaches, Mr. Homan shows no signs of backing down from plans for an illegal immigration crackdown and mass deportations. “We’ll be ready to launch the day of the inauguration,” he told CNN on Wednesday. “We want to arrest as many people as we can in the country illegally.” That will include arresting parents whose children are American citizens, he said, adding that “having a child in this country does not make you immune from our laws.”He is seeking at least 100,000 beds to detain individuals who are in the country illegally.

Texas Issues Stark Warning as States Take Wildly Different Approaches to Immigration Ahead of Trump 2.0

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