State of Texas: 'Whatever it takes,' State leaders vow to support Trump border security, deportation efforts

AUSTIN (Nexstar) - Only minutes after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security policies and promised Texas would have support from Washington now that he was in office.

“He was a very popular governor and now he's an unbeatable governor because of [his] border policies," said Trump about Abbott, in remarks at the Capitol following his inauguration.

To back this up, the president signed 10 immigration-related executive orders on Monday, some of which were very similar to policies already in place in Texas due to Abbott’s $11 billion border security plan - Operation Lone Star. This initiative deploys the National Guard to South Texas and funds a state-constructed border wall among other measures. 

The president declared a national emergency on the southern border - promising to send troops to the area to prevent an “invasion” of illegal immigrants. He also said he would designate foreign gangs as terrorist organizations and resume construction of the border wall that had been halted during the Biden Administration. These orders resemble Abbott’s policies, which are already in place in Texas.

Another one of Trump's orders includes reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols program, otherwise known as Remain in Mexico, which was a mainstay of Trump’s first presidency and which kept thousands of asylum-seekers from stepping foot in U.S. soil while their immigration proceedings played out. Many of the migrants lived in makeshift camps that formed near international bridges or filled shelters in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Matamoros, Mexico, was the site of one such camp, which formed near the foot of the Gateway International Bridge. Mexican officials have discouraged migrants from living at the location and recently dismantled all remnants of the camp.

On Tuesday, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Benjamine Huffman, announced that the agency reinstated MPP, effective immediately. The same day, local shelters in Matamoros and Reynosa, Mexico were reportedly filling up with asylum-seekers who no longer knew how long they would be staying at the border.

Contributing to the confusion was another order Trump issued doing away with the CBP One app, which since 2023 allowed migrants to schedule asylum appointments at U.S. ports of entry, including the Gateway International Bridge.

Also on Tuesday, border crossers were surprised to see a cadre of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in riot gear marching in formation and temporarily closing an international bridge in Brownsville, Texas.

Eighteen officers wearing helmets with face shields marched in 30-degree weather to the Gateway International Bridge after Trump issued sweeping executive orders relating to immigration and keeping asylum-seekers south of the U.S. border.

Jaylee Cadriel, 19, from Brownsville, told Border Report that he was waiting in a car for his pregnant wife when CBP officers ordered him to leave the vicinity as the troops approached.

“I cross often,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this. This is the first time I’m seeing it and for the first time they were really rude. They didn’t want to talk to me politely and that kind of fired me up a little bit.”

A CBP official told Border Report the bridge was shut down for a short time during the exercise, which is called a “hardening exercise” and something that officers practice regularly. However, officers marching on the city street for blocks is not something that has been seen here since the first Trump administration.

And Cadriel and others worry that it is sending a very public and threatening message to the border region.

“Everyone’s a Mexican. Even if you have your papers or not, they’re still Mexican but the way they act toward us is messed up. Texas was part of Mexico at one point so at least give us the respect we deserve,” he said.

In a directive issued Thursday evening, the Trump administration also authorized several more federal agencies to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.

Law enforcement officials in the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons now have the authority to investigate and apprehend immigrants they believe to be in the country illegally.

“Mobilizing these law enforcement officials will help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations. For decades, efforts to find and apprehend illegal aliens have not been given proper resources. This is a major step in fixing that problem,” said a DHS spokesman in a statement to Border Report.

Deportation flights of migrants have begun by the U.S. military on the southern border, according to a post Friday on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” she wrote.

In South Texas, most repatriations are happening at the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, which leads to Reynosa, Mexico.

Border Patrol spokeswoman Christina Smallwood told Border Report on Friday that immigrants who are detained for illegally crossing into the Rio Grande Valley are driven in buses to the bridge, removed and physically walked by Border Patrol agents to the halfway point of the bridge where they are handed over to Mexican authorities.

“If you cross illegally you will be sent back,” Smallwood said.

Repatriations at the bridge have long occurred under Title 8, which forbids crossing into the United States unless at legal ports of entry.

However it is expected that with additional arresting agencies, and the military being sent to the Southwest border that more deportations will occur.

"It's a new day in America," Texas Republican Congressman August Pfluger said in an interview one day after the inauguration. Pfluger represents District 11 which covers Midland-Odessa and parts of the Hill Country. He says he is optimistic about the future with President Trump.

“It’s great to know that somebody is taking up for us, securing the border, unleashing American energy, and getting us back to the prosperity we deserve,” Pfluger said.

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said that Trump has already started to back up the state’s efforts. 

“One of the first things that President Trump did was to give state and local law enforcement some enforcement ability with regard to immigration. So that's going to be very helpful," Buckingham said in an interview with NewsNation Reporter Ali Bradley.

"Texas, of course, has been passing several laws already that kind of helped us get hands on these violent criminals and detain them longer," Buckingham added. "So now we'll have even more tools at our disposal."

Buckingham said the state plans to utilize any means necessary to boost its partnership with the federal government and curb the illegal immigration crisis. She noted that the state's General Land Office already offered the Trump Administration about 1400 acres of land to help with mass deportations.

Once the confirmation hearings for Department of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem are complete, Buckingham said she will work together with Noem and Trump's border czar Tom Homan on additional plans.

"I have 13 million acres across the state. So we have land almost everywhere. We've identified pieces that we think are more helpful out of the gate. But, of course, whatever it is they need," she said.

Buckingham also noted that the state is willing to help the federal government acquire property if necessary.

“We'll do whatever it takes. We're here to be a good partner again, just getting these violent criminals who've been hurting our sons and daughters off of our soil,” she said.

In the meantime, efforts in the state are underway to make that happen. State Senate President Pro Tempore Brandon Creighton has filed a bill to allow Texas to use eminent domain authority to build a wall along the southern border. 

All of these efforts come at a cost to Texas taxpayers which the state hopes the federal government can help cover. 

“Texas would like some reimbursement, especially for our efforts building the wall. Of course, a lot of our expenditures were based on increased law enforcement presence down there, but we do think it's fair to be reimbursed,” Buckingham said.

Senator John Cornyn is backing the push for reimbursement. "I will fight to include funds in Congress' reconciliation legislation to reimburse Texas for its historic efforts to secure the border..." Cornyn wrote in a statement released Thursday.

Buckingham said Texas is looking forward to sharing the fight with the federal government. 

“We do look forward to passing a baton to our happy federal partner, hopefully, Texas will have to spend a lot less in the future as these policies change, these lures that bring people here. And so we are excited. We think President Trump is off to an incredibly strong start,” Buckingham said.

Senate bill lays out plan to help parents pay for private school

On Friday, Senate lawmakers filed the bill that lays out the plan to help Texas parents pay for private school for their children. Senate Bill 2 would create a voucher-like education savings account program.

The bill carves out $10,000 per student per year to help pay for private school tuition. The amount is higher, $11,500, if the student has a disability. Budget proposals from both the House and Senate called for $1 billion dollars for education savings accounts.

Under SB 2, the progam would be open to every student in the state to apply, whether they currently attend public school or private school. But if applications exceed the capacity, then 80% of the available funds would go to students who are currently in public school and are either from low-income households or those who have a disability. Those spots would be decided by a lottery system.

"Every child in Texas deserves the chance to succeed, especially those who require specialized learning environments," lead author Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe wrote in a news release.

The bill is already facing backlash from House Democrats.

"This is bad public policy," said State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, about SB 2. Talarico once served as a public school teacher and has been a vocal opponent of voucher-like programs.

He said that he believes most low-income students will not be able to take advantage of the program because of a lack of access to private schools in their area. He also notes that private schools can decide to reject students.

"If working class kids can't take advantage of it, then that money goes to wealthy parents who are already sending their kids to private school," Talarico said.

Supporters of the legislation believe the bill gives parents and students options to get the best education available.

"By passing this legislation, we will break the barriers imposed by zip codes and give all families the tools they need to provide a brighter future for their children," Creighton said.

The future of AI takes shape in Texas

A day after his second inauguration, President Donald Trump made waves with the announcement of a major project in the field of artificial intelligence. With business leaders of Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank beside him, the President revealed details about Stargate, a joint venture to invest up to $500 billion in infrastructure for AI.

Stargate will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison revealed that the first part of Stargate will take shape in Abilene. The project will launch at the Lancium campus, a data center in the north part of the city. The company began construction of its clean energy data center in 2022, initailly planning to focus on Bitcoin mining.

"It started as a smaller project back in 2021, 22, and then it has, you know, progressively just grown," Taylor County Judge Phil Crowley recalled. He said the announcement was a surprise.

"I think everyone was shocked in a good way, you know, to see President Trump mention that," Crowley said.

Ellison shared that Oracle aims to help doctors and patients better understand medical conditions and create personalized healthcare plans by utilizing AI in electronic health records.

“A doctor in Indian River Reservation would be able to see how a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering would treat the patient, or a doctor at Stanford would treat the patient. We actually provide all of that information, all of that guidance, to the doctor, the doctors who are treating cancer patients or patients of any other kind of disease made possible by AI,” Ellison explained.

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake co-chairs the state's Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, and also served on a select committee to study the emerging technology. He is working on legislation to create guardrails to protect privacy as AI develops.

"There's a lot of information that is being collected. It's going to have a lot of power," Capriglione said. He said one concern is transparency when it comes to companies collecting data for AI and keeping it from being misused.

"How are they doing this? But also making sure that this data that they're collecting about me and you and our kids and our families and friends is protected from attacks that they keep us in mind first, and that's what's important," Capriglione said.

He said expanding AI in Texas comes with opportunity, but also challenges.

"On the one hand, we do absolutely want to make sure that that it improves our economy here in Texas, that it creates jobs, which we think it will, that it helps improve diagnosis and health care, right, that it makes our lives easier to get from one place to another."

"That, being said, we have a fiduciary responsibility, a responsibility to absolutely make sure that when these tools are being used, that we take our constituents safety in mind," Capriglione added. "So a lot of what this legislation tries to do, tries to balance those two things, not be overly prescriptive, but still provide an opportunity for us to create these guardrails."

"We want that technology to grow, to expand. We want that innovation to happen here in Texas, and it is," Capriglione said. "We've become a leader, a world leader, when it comes to technologies and data centers and AI, someday soon quantum computing and nuclear as well. So a lot of exciting things are happening."

Texas impact as hiring freeze hits IRS

Trump signed a series of executive orders following his inauguration on Monday, including a freeze on hiring federal workers except for positions related to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety. 

He also ordered the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce before mid-April. 

The IRS is included in the agencies that would not be able to bring in new employees. The federal government’s official employment site, USAJOBS, shows the IRS has hundreds of vacancies it had been looking to fill. Many of those vacancies are based in Texas, but the agency could not provide a count as to how many.

The president's executive order is expected to last at least 90 days for all federal agencies, except the IRS. Trump ordered the freeze to remain in effect for the IRS until the Treasury Secretary determines it is of national interest to lift the order. 

The president's “America First Priorities” list provides some insight into why he ordered the freeze. In the list posted on Jan. 20, his office wrote “[Trump] will freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried in the federal workforce.”

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, believes the order will further harm the IRS, which - according to the 2025 National Taxpayer Advocate report – is already struggling with processing delays for returns and identity theft victims.

“The effort being made right at the time that tax season is about upon us will mean that tax refunds arrive late, that tax processing is slow, that government loses revenue,” Doggett said.

Texas Senator John Cornyn said he does not expect untoward results because of the temporary pause.

"The president doesn't even have his IRS commissioner confirmed. So, I think a temporary pause makes sense to me so that it can be evaluated for what the needs are," Cornyn said. "I have no doubt that the federal government is simply too big, and too bloated, with too many employees." 

The National Taxpayer Advocate, which is an independent organization within the IRS, also found continuing challenges with employee recruitment, hiring, and retention is one of the most serious problems facing the agency.

“I think the real goal here is to protect tax cheats. There's been a steady reduction in the funding for tax enforcement, and so some of the most wealthy people in the country avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and the burden shifts to working families and small businesses,” Doggett added.

KXAN reached out to the White House for comment but has not heard back.