Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been one of President Donald Trump's closest allies on immigration policy, working hand in hand with him, giving Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement all the state support they ask for, and even building his own mini-border patrol operation under former President Joe Biden called Operation Lone Star.
But after weeks of brutal and sometimes deadly ICE operations that have clashed with state governments around the country and caused unrest in Minneapolis, even he is now distancing himself from ICE's actions — and saying Trump needs a new strategy.
According to the El Paso Times, Abbott, whose state includes the largest section of the international border with Mexico, acknowledged in a Monday interview on the Mark Davis Show podcast that the White House has work to do to rebuild public trust in immigration enforcement.
"They, being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that respect is going to be reinstilled," said Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term in office this year. "That's not an easy task, especially under the current circumstances, but I know that they (the White House) are working on a game plan to make sure that they are going to ...recalibrate and maybe work from a different direction to ensure that they get back to get what they wanted to do to begin with — and that is to remove people from the country."
However, Abbott also went out of his way to assign some blame to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
"Texas actually ranks number one for ICE removals and yet we don't have fighting and protest like that ... and that's because we have leaders, whether that be the governor, or local mayors or other local leaders, no one's tried to incite violence here in the state of Texas," said Abbott.
In fact, there have been widespread anti-ICE protests around Texas, including in Austin and surrounding areas, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, and Abbott did not go into detail how he believes that Walz or Frey have "tried to incite violence."
Abbott is not alone among Texas Republicans in his worry that ICE needs to step back and change strategies. Jerry Patterson, a former Republican lawmaker who authored the state's handgun laws, slammed the agency for the death of Alex Pretti over a lawfully carried firearm, writing for the Austin American-Statesman, "ICE is needed, but not this ICE. This ICE and its leadership need to go — now."