Abbott: ‘We’re not shooting people’ who cross the border because feds ‘would charge us with murder’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said shooting people who cross the border is the only tool the state is not using to deter migrants because the Biden administration would sue the state for “murder.”

“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,” Abbott said on “The Dana Loesch Show” last week.

“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 later added.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa blasted Abbott’s remarks in a statement issued Thursday.

“The only thing stopping Greg Abbott from ordering law enforcement to shoot migrant women and children are murder charges. Time and time again, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it abundantly clear they have no morality or humanity,” Hinojosa said in a lengthy statement.

Abbott’s administration has focused heavily on its border policies and has repeatedly accused the federal government of not doing enough to control the border. Texas has installed razor wire barriers alongside its border, which the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on last week.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott endorses Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump during an event at the South Texas International Airport Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, in Edinburg, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Abbott also defended the decision to lay down razor wire in his state.

“In the history of America, have you ever seen a president tried to prevent a state from securing his own safety? 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,” Abbott told host Dana Loesch.

“And because it was so effective, Biden ordered the Border Patrol to either cut it or to lift it,” he added.

The Biden administration has sparred frequently with Abbott’s administration about Texas’s authority to enact policies on immigration — a power that the White House argues belongs with the federal government. Last month, Abbott signed the bill allowing Texas law enforcement officers to arrest migrants that enter the U.S. illegally and gave local judges the power to order migrants be removed from the country.

The Justice Department already filed a lawsuit against Texas last week after warning the state not to enforce the new law.

Heartland Signal first highlighted Abbott’s remarks.