Greg Abbott's 'Fiasco' Bill Rebuked by Major Texas Newspaper

Texas' controversial border legislation, Senate Bill 4 (S.B. 4), is the "wrong kind of intervention" to curb migration in the state, according to the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News, adding that it would result in "a fiasco for our sheriffs and police."

Governor Greg Abbott has been caught in legal limbo with the White House over S.B. 4, which would grant Texas law enforcement the ability to arrest and detain individuals suspected of crossing into the state illegally from other countries, a role traditionally held by the federal government. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that the law, which the Biden administration sued to strike down, could go into effect. Hours later, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals bounced the bill back on hold, pending appeal.

Abbott, a Republican, has repeatedly clashed with President Joe Biden over handling Texas' southern border, and the White House has faced growing pressure from conservatives in light of encounter surges along the U.S.-Mexico perimeter. In an op-ed published Friday morning, The Dallas Morning News wrote that Texas had the right to intervene, adding that Biden's "lax border enforcement overwhelmed Texas communities with tens of thousands of people crossing illegally every month."

"S.B. 4, however, is the wrong kind of intervention," the editorial board added. "It creates more problems than it solves."

The op-ed pointed to the bill's proponents who say it is unclear how the law would impact other states' handling of illegal border crossings. During a hearing on S.B. 4 in the appeals court on Wednesday, Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson told the three-judge panel that he didn't know how the law could be applied if an individual crossed into the U.S. illegally from another state and later moved to Texas.

Nielson, according to the editorial board, was also asked how Texas would deal with a migrant delivered by state officials to a port of entry and was later released by federal U.S. Border Patrol. The state official responded, "This is uncharted because we don't have any cases on it."

The Dallas Morning News wrote that "the most damaging argument against S.B. 4 is the widespread confusion among the law enforcement officials in Texas charged with applying the law." The newspaper referenced its own report from Thursday, in which state law enforcement told reporters that they were waiting for more guidance on responding to the new bill.

"Gov. Greg Abbott was right to send state troopers and soldiers to watch the border with Mexico and help catch people trying to evade Border Patrol," read the op-ed. "And it's not immoral or unreasonable to build physical barriers as a form of border control, despite what some activists on the left would have Texans believe.

"Yet the more Texas is forced to explain how S.B. 4 would work, the more apparent it becomes that its authors didn't know what they were doing. The outcome of this law won't be a safer border but an expensive legal battle and a fiasco for our sheriffs and police," it concluded.

Newsweek reached out to Abbott's office via email for comment on Friday.