Governor Abbott and the speaker of the Texas house of representatives, Dustin Burrows, are ordering law enforcement officials to arrest Democratic members of the legislature in order to force their attendance. The governor’s special legislative session is now paralyzed as Democrats have fled the state in protest of GOP attempts to redraw that state’s congressional maps. 

Democrats left the state for New York and Illinois in just the last 24 hours. Without their physical presence at the state capital for the special legislative sessions, the house of representatives is not officially in session, and therefore cannot proceed with legislative business. 

Mr. Abbott and other Republicans are pushing a new congressional map that would move five solidly Democratic U.S. House seats into the Republican column. 

“Texas will not be held hostage by Democrat lawmakers who abandon their duty,” Mr. Burrows wrote in a post on X, which included a photo of himself signing a piece of paper in the state house chamber. “To those who fled: your absence delays our work, but it does not stop it. I’ve signed civil arrest warrants to compel attendance and get back to work.”

“We will restore quorum. We will act. We will address the issues on the Special Session call,” the speaker said. 

Mr. Abbott, too, says he is directing his state law enforcement agency to arrest Democratic lawmakers in order to compel their attendance for the special session. 

“By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement. The governor says to “ensure compliance” with Mr. Burrows’s move to arrest lawmakers, he has “ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty.”

“This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol,” Mr. Abbott said. 

“More of this,” Congressman Chip Roy, an Austin-area Republican, wrote on X of the move to arrest the Democrats. 

In order to approve Mr. Burrows’s order to compel the attendance of absent lawmakers, the members present in the chamber had to vote on the measure. It ended up passing with 85 representatives voting yes and just six voting no. 

The directions from the house chamber to arrest absent members is an entirely symbolic one, given that the legislatively approved warrants only apply within state lines. More than 50 Democrats are currently out of state. 

Even though they have been called to attend the legislative session, no criminal or civil charges will be levied against them, though each member currently avoiding the session will be fined $500 per day until they return. 

The minority leader in the Texas house of representatives, Gene Wu, made his way to Illinois on Sunday to delay the consideration of new congressional maps. At a press conference alongside Governor Pritzker, Mr. Wu said that the decision to flee his home state was not an easy one. 

“We come here today with absolute moral clarity,” Mr. Wu told reporters. “Governor Abott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump so that Donald Trump could steal these communities’ power and voice. We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities.”