Colleen Deguzman, The Texas Tribune

After missing her chair and falling on the tile floor during a child’s birthday party last October, the 54-year-old Edinburg woman begged: “Don’t take me to the hospital.”

Her head was throbbing and sharp pain stretched down her back. The woman, an undocumented immigrant, told herself she'd have to brave through it. Immigration enforcement officials have detained two of her distant family members and deported another to Mexico, and she feared that going to a hospital would make her an easy next target.

“It’s not worth the risk,” said the mother of four, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of being deported.

The woman has lived in South Texas for 27 years — half of her life so far. She moved to Texas from Reynosa, her hometown, after her brother-in-law was murdered on the street. All of her children are citizens and when she fell, all she could think about was: “I don’t want to be separated from my family,” she said.

She’s one of many in Texas who have been avoiding hospitals over fear of immigration enforcement at both the state and federal level, according to public health experts. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered hospitals in November 2024 to start asking patients about their citizenship status, a question patients may decline to answer. Facilities track responses and submit that information to Texas Health and Human Services.

The data, limited to 10 months, suggests that undocumented immigrants may be increasingly foregoing health care.

In November 2024, Texas hospitals reported about 30,000 visits from undocumented immigrants. In a matter of months, that dropped by 32% to 20,345 visits in August.

During the same period, the number of visits by patients legally present in the U.S. increased by 14%. Self-identified undocumented patients comprised about 2% of all reported visits statewide, and dozens of hospitals reported no undocumented patients.

Experts blame the decrease in hospital visits by undocumented immigrants on the government’s strict enforcement of immigration laws.

Fulfilling his promise to carry out the country’s largest deportation program, Trump last year lifted a federal policy that limited arrests of immigrants in sensitive locations such as hospitals, along with churches and schools. Federal immigration officers have been seen staking out hospitals in other parts of the country. Although agents have not been confirmed near Texas hospitals, many immigrants are not taking the risk.

“Substantial shares of immigrants are saying they have avoided seeking medical care due to immigration related fears,” said Drishti Pillai, the director of immigrant health policy at KFF, a health policy organization that regularly surveys immigrants about policies that affect their health care access.

While undocumented immigrants have always used health care significantly less often than the general population, she said, new policies, such as Texas’ hospital citizenship question, have made it worse.

“We are seeing an exacerbation of some of these challenges,” Pillai said.

Abbott has insisted that the data produced from his executive order proves public funds are paying for the health care of undocumented immigrants. While hospital visits by undocumented immigrants dropped during the 10-month period, the average cost per visit by them increased about 50%, from $3,409 in November 2024 to $5,100 in August.

Abbott did not require hospitals to report how much visits by patients legally present in the U.S. cost taxpayers.

“For too long, Biden-Harris open-border policies forced Texas taxpayers to foot the bill for over a billion dollars in healthcare costs for individuals in the country illegally,” said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. “Texans should not have to financially support medical care for illegal immigrants.”

Abbott’s order has produced less-than-conclusive data because it depends on whether undocumented immigrants are willing to self-identify as such.

Since patients aren’t required to answer questions of their citizenship under Abbott’s order, the drop in the number of visits from patients self-identifying as undocumented immigrants could also be because fewer patients are choosing to answer the question. But, it is impossible to know that from the data.

Even so, immigrant rights groups and health care policy experts say they are seeing more Texans like the Edinburg woman who are sick and in pain but wait to seek hospital and other medical care. Undocumented immigrants are also delaying preventive care, such as cancer screenings, prenatal check-ups and vision exams. Pillai fears delay in any care could lead to worse health conditions and prognoses, and more expensive medical bills.

Dr. Ryan Padrez, an associate director at Stanford University’s Center on Early Childhood, said he’s especially concerned about the long-term impacts on children. It’s common in mixed-status families that children are citizens and parents are undocumented, and if adults are avoiding hospitals, they probably aren’t taking their children to medical clinics either, he said.

“They’re not putting themselves or their child at risk,” said Padrez. “Families are choosing to delay care for now.”

Since the Edinburg woman’s fall last year, she said “not a day goes by that I don’t experience some type of headache.” She had vision problems for a couple weeks after the incident and months later, still suffers from dizzy spells and some memory loss, she said. She’s been placing ice packs at the back of her neck daily to reduce pain, but so far, it’s only offered temporary relief.

“When state and federal governments design and implement immigration policies and enforcement to force communities into hiding, under threat of violence,” said Lynn Cowles, director of health and food justice for Every Texan, a Texas policy group, “whole communities suffer.”

Regional differences

In Texas, people have reported staying home as much as possible to avoid being targeted by police or immigration officers, and only going out for essential trips like to work or to buy groceries.

The drops in hospital visits from some undocumented patients, according to the Tribune’s analysis, were reported across the state, but some of the steepest declines were in hospitals near the Mexico border, including Edinburg.

Doctors Hospital of Laredo saw a nearly 48% decline in visits from undocumented patients, from 1,700 visits in November 2024 to 889 in August. South Texas Health System in Edinburg saw a 52% drop in visits during the same timespan by undocumented patients, from 1,127 to 538.

Declines weren’t limited to border hospitals. Dallas County Hospital District reported more than 4,000 undocumented hospital visits in November 2024, and that declined by more than a third in August.

All three hospitals declined to provide a comment for the story.

The Tribune contacted eight other hospitals across the state, including major facilities in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, asking them to explain their reported drops in visits from undocumented immigrants. Most hospitals did not respond and others declined to be interviewed. The Texas Hospital Association, which represents more than 85% of the state’s acute care hospitals, also declined to comment on the data.

Often fixtures in hospitals and clinics who help connect patients to resources, social workers are having trouble tracking down patients after an appointment, said Will Francis, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers chapters in Texas.

“Social workers will never accomplish what the client needs if they are afraid having a conversation will get them in trouble later on,” he said.

Many immigrants — not only those who are undocumented — are delaying medical care over concerns about being mistaken for an undocumented immigrant and being illegally detained, experts said.

There’s been several cases in Texas in which people lawfully in the country, such as DACA recipients, have been detained by ICE. About 1 in 7 immigrants avoided medical care over fear of immigration enforcement, according to a November KFF survey.

“Regardless of immigration status, we are seeing substantial shares of immigrants say that the current policy environment and immigration related concerns have led to negative health impacts for both immigrants and their children, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens,” Pillai said.

Immigration enforcement has blocked people from getting medical care, at hospitals and elsewhere. Last year, an 11-year-old with a brain tumor and her family were detained while traveling to Houston for a surgery. Immigration enforcement agents stopped them at a border checkpoint in Sarita, a town south of Kingsville, and the family was eventually deported.

No trust

A slow public health clinic is typically not a good sign, said Phil Huang, the director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services, especially during the back-to-school season.

By August each year, Huang said the line for back-to-school vaccines usually snakes outside the clinic’s doors and congests the waiting room. But last year, he said, “we didn’t see that.” In 2024, the county administered 16,412 vaccines, he said. Last August, Dallas County’s public health clinics administered 9,578.

In Texas, uninsured children, regardless of citizenship status, can get vaccinated at low or no cost. Because his clinics don’t ask for patients’ citizenship status, Huang suspects many of his patients are undocumented immigrants and ties the dramatic drop in county-administered vaccinations to concerns about immigration enforcement. Employees have told him that patients have been more hesitant to share routine, personal information with them, and that many have asked whether that data was being used to help ICE locate them.

The drop in vaccinations “is disheartening,” said Ann Barnes, president and CEO of Episcopal Health Foundation, a public charity based in Houston.

“The very systems that are supposed to be there to help are now not trusted,” she said.

Trump gave deportation officials access to Medicaid data last year, which public health officials say has had a chilling effect on emergency room and other hospital visits for undocumented immigrants across the country. People are now fearful that the information hospitals collect will be weaponized against them and passed along to ICE. Undocumented immigrants, however, don’t have access to federal health care coverage unless it's a medical emergency.

Barnes said one of the primary options for health care for undocumented immigrants and their families has been federally qualified health centers since they’re required to serve anyone in their service area, regardless of income or immigration status. She said it makes them a crucial safety net for the community.

Three months after her fall, the Edinburg woman said her head injury got so painful that she decided in January to go to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Health Center to get checked — a clinic she said she’s trusted for years.

But recent reinterpretations of “federal public benefits” bars undocumented immigrants from certain programs that federally qualified health centers offer, including certain mental health programs, substance abuse programs and family planning. Even though they will still have access to essential services, such as check-ups, screenings, immunizations and child visits, undocumented immigrants are opting not to come into these centers altogether.

Instead of going to federally qualified clinics, undocumented immigrants are most likely leaning on nonprofits and charity clinics with limited resources for their health care, Barnes said.

Tara Trower, deputy CEO for CommUnity Care Health Centers, which runs federally qualified clinics in Austin, said they’re offering telehealth options for those concerned about going in person, including undocumented immigrant patients. They also implemented a telehealth system that doesn’t require patients to provide information that can be used to track them down, adding an extra layer of security for undocumented patients who fear their whereabouts could be given to immigration enforcement.

“We are actually seeing a record number of patients again this year, using this method, but we also hear the concerns,” she said.

Trower said her organization is making more effort to reschedule appointments for patients and battle misinformation about these centers sending patient information to ICE. A couple years ago, Trower said a “Know Your Rights” information campaign by the organization helped patients learn about what protections they have.

“They feel safe coming in for care here because we don’t ask for anything, we deliver care regardless,” Trower said.

Long-term impact

In the Texas-Mexico border county of Hidalgo, hospitals reported a more than 40% drop in visits from undocumented patients in August compared to November 2024. Dr. Ivan Melendez, a family practice doctor serving as the county’s chief medical officer, said more patients are waiting longer before seeking treatment.

“They’re coming in with a higher level of acuity, they’re sicker,” he said.

He said patients in the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost tip of the state, more often than before are calling hospital officials ahead of time to ask whether ICE is there.

When people wait too long to flag health problems, their chances of recovering quickly or at all shortens, said Padrez. And if people are avoiding hospitals, he’s worried they’re also avoiding preventive health care services.

“We have a script for how this played out a few years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

People stayed away from health clinics and children missed key routine check-ups during the height of the pandemic, Padrez said, and not too long after “we saw skyrocketing rates of under-detected or under-treated mental health needs like anxiety and depression.”

There’s an important window during a child’s early years when doctors look out for early signs of diseases or developmental delays, he said. Treatment for those conditions, such as therapy, are often more successful when children start them at a very young age.

Huang with Dallas County said Texas is ripe grounds for recurring public health crises if undocumented people continue to avoid health care. Last year, the state faced a record-breaking measles outbreak that started in West Texas and an 11-year high in whooping cough cases. This year, at least 170 cases of measles have been reported statewide, concentrated mostly in federal detention centers in West Texas.

“We are more vulnerable to outbreaks… We might see other preventable diseases further down the road,” he said.

For years, the woman in Edinburg has a work permit and has been employed as a home health aid for an elderly woman, making sure she is well fed, cleaned, and that her health is taken care of. As she now faces her own health struggles, she said she won’t stop continuing to care for someone else’s well being.

“I leave my house every day with a lot of nerves, praying and asking God to let me come back home,” she said. “To let me get to my job and let me come back home safely.”

Disclosure: Episcopal Health Foundation, Every Texan and Texas Hospital Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

The Corpus Christi City Council voted on Tuesday to launch a removal hearing for Mayor Paulette Guajardo over allegations of misconduct.

The decision comes as the city faces a growing water crisis. A water emergency may be just months away, according to city leaders. But the controversy surrounding the mayor stems from a hotel development project, not the city’s management of its water supply.

After a tense debate, council members voted 5-3 to begin a trial to decide whether to eject Guajardo, who has been in office since 2021.

A citizen petition to remove Guajardo that precipitated the council vote includes allegations that she put an item on the council's agenda to award $2 million in tax incentives to a developer seeking to build a Homewood Suites in Corpus Christi, and that a PowerPoint presentation about the project included a slide showing a FEMA flood map that had been altered.

Guajardo is accused of being aware that the presentation that led them to choose Elevate QOF LLC as the developer was altered.

Ajit David, a competing hotel developer who wasn’t selected for the project, filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that the council approved the tax incentives based on an “ongoing false narrative” about the competing proposal.

Guajardo, who voted in favor of the tax incentives, later told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that the allegations against her are without merit. The Corpus Christi Police Department conducted an investigation and decided not to pursue a criminal case.

After the council discusses and decides the hearing’s procedures on April 14, they will move forward with adopting articles of impeachment for the mayor. For the removal hearing, city council members will “be essentially the judge and jury,” City Attorney Miles Risley said, and it would take a majority vote to oust Guajardo.

Guajardo will have the opportunity to summon witnesses and defend herself.

The process, according to Risley, could take around two months.

Council member Mark Scott, who voted against moving forward with the removal process, said the council should be focusing on a more pressing issue: the city’s imperiled water supply.

“What I get back from the community is, ‘Hey, are you guys rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?’” he said. “This is terrible timing.”

Council member Kaylynn Paxson said she voted in favor of holding a removal hearing because “we have to give that process a fair run … We have to let both sides come before us.”

Council member Roland Barrera, who voted against the measure, said he worries that the high-profile proceedings will discourage developers from considering doing business in Corpus Christi in the future.

“I would argue that this type of behavior, and the fact that we placate this kind of behavior, it tells developers, ‘Don't come to Corpus Christi, don't come to downtown,’” Barrera said.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Cuban man’s death at El Paso tent camp was result of “spontaneous use of force,” ICE says

by Lomi Kriel and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
February 20, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week reported that the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at a detention facility in El Paso was the result of the staff’s “spontaneous use of force” to “prevent him from harming himself.” Officials quietly updated the cause of death after previously declaring last month that the man died of “medical distress.”

The finding comes weeks after the local medical examiner ruled Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, the first such ruling for an ICE detainee’s death linked to staff in at least 15 years, according to experts. Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement,” his autopsy found, dying of asphyxia, meaning he couldn’t breathe because of pressure on his neck and chest.

In ICE’s report this week, investigators wrote that Lunas Campos, who was being detained at Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base, had a “complex medical and mental health history,” including prior treatment for tuberculosis, depression, anxiety and asthma, as well as a history of suicide attempts and “long-term psychotropic medication use.”

ICE officials wrote in that report that while detained at Camp East Montana, Lunas Campos received “regular” medical evaluations, with staff noting “episodes of significant psychological distress, including multiple incidents of self-harm and suicide watch placements.”

Six El Paso detainees described in federal court statements last month that Lunas Campos, a father of three who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years before being arrested last year, begged for days to receive his asthma medication. Detention staff refused and threatened him with solitary confinement, inmates said in the court filings.

On Jan. 3, ICE officials said Lunas Campos “attempted self-harm, prompting a rapid response from custody and medical staff.” The report noted “attempts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful.” He was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m.

The finding is a stark contrast to the initial ICE news release claiming Lunas Campos died from “medical distress.” Only after the medical examiner advised his family that it might be a homicide did ICE officials allege a suicide attempt.

In a statement to The Texas Tribune Friday afternoon, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not give their name defended the report, claiming that Lunas Campos “violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life.”

During the ensuing struggle, the spokesperson wrote, Campos “stopped breathing and lost consciousness.” Medical staff was immediately called, but after repeated attempts to resuscitate him, he was declared dead.

Lunas Campos’ death “is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming,” the spokesperson said.

"This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the spokesperson added. “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip."

Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday on whether ICE’s determination would prompt criminal charges.

Experts said that state prosecutors have precedent to pursue such charges despite the death occurring on military property, which is under federal jurisdiction.

“This is a moment where we need local law enforcement, local prosecutors to create accountability, because the federal government will not,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has visited the Fort Bliss camp more than half a dozen times.

She said that she believes local prosecutors have jurisdiction to prosecute the case although it happened on federal property because the staffers involved appear not to be ICE employees, but contractors.

“From what I understand, these are civilians. They're not law enforcement,” Escobar said in a recent interview. “They do not have the immunity the way that federal, state or local law enforcement officials have.”

Andra Litton, a special projects administrator for the El Paso District Attorney’s office, wrote in an email that the office continues to research whether it has jurisdiction to pursue charges, which she said is based on “the physical location of the facility, not the status or nature of employees involved.”

Camp East Montana was constructed in a record two months last summer after the government granted a $1.2 billion contract to Acquisition Logistics, a small Virginia corporation with no listed experience running detention facilities. The tent camp has been plagued with problems since it opened.

Since mid-December, three people have died there in a six-week span, beginning with a 48-year-old Guatemalan, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, who ICE said died on Dec. 3 of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention. Eleven days after Lunas Campos’ death, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz marked the facility’s third fatality. ICE sent Diaz to a U.S. Army hospital rather than the local medical examiner, where a military spokesperson said that the agency would not make his autopsy public.

The East Montana camp had no policy detailing when or how contractors can use force, two officials who viewed an investigative report conducted by ICE last fall or were briefed by the agency told The Texas Tribune. Contractors were also provided only 40 hours of training, a fraction of at least 42 days typically required of regular ICE agents, according to those officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Acquisition Logistics and two of its contractors in charge of detention and medical care either did not immediately respond to questions late Friday or could not be reached.

The federal government tried to deport the six detainees who witnessed the final moments of Lunas Campos, who had long–standing previous criminal convictions including child sex assault. A federal judge in Texas blocked their removal until after they testified to lawyers who have filed a civil suit against the government in his death.

The whereabouts of those witnesses are currently unclear, said Chris Benoit, an attorney representing Lunas Campos’ three children.

In their federal testimony, detainees told lawyers that after pleading for his asthma medication, guards dragged Lunas Campos in shackles to an isolation unit. They recalled “what sounded like the slamming of a person’s body against the floor or a wall.” They said they heard him gasp that he could no longer breathe. Then, “silence.”

Fatalities in ICE custody are typically the result of poor medical care or suicides, said Scott Shuchart, a former head of policy at ICE under Biden and senior adviser under Trump’s first term to DHS’ Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

“Deaths from staff violence are another level,” he said, calling them “preventable, and the result of training and supervision failures."

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to ban two Muslim groups and their members from owning land in Texas

by Berenice Garcia, Joshua Fechter and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
November 18, 2025

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday named two Islamic groups as terrorist and criminal organizations, banning them and those associated with the groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas.

Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, as transnational criminal organizations.

In announcing the designation, Abbott accused the two groups of supporting terrorism across the world and of subverting Texas laws through harassment, intimidation and violence.

"The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable," Abbott said in a statement.

Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor CAIR is listed on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a multinational organization with no central figure. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the Trump administration was considering designating the group or branches of the group as terrorist organizations but has not.

CAIR, a Muslim civil rights group, issued a statement saying they have consistently condemned all forms of unjust violence and said their condemnation of terrorism made their national director a target for ISIS.

"Although we are flattered by Greg Abbott's obsession with our civil rights organization, his publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation has no basis in fact or law," CAIR stated. "By defaming a prominent American Muslim institution with debunked conspiracy theories and made-up quotes, Mr. Abbott has once again shown that his top priority is advancing anti-Muslim bigotry, not serving the people of Texas."

They further stated the organization would be ready to mount a legal challenge if the declaration were to become actual policy.

Abbott's proclamation cites a new law that was approved by the Texas lawmakers earlier this year. The bill gave Abbott more power to ban property ownership by governmental entities, companies, and individuals from a country named in annual threat assessment reports prepared by the director of national security.

A similar law in Florida is making its way through the courts. A three-judge panel on the 11th 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the state to enforce its ban.

Abbott's proclamation cites a new law that was approved by the Texas lawmakers earlier this year. The bill gave Abbott more power to ban property ownership by governmental entities, companies, and individuals from a country named in the three most recent annual threat assessment reports prepared by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence

A similar law in Florida is making its way through the courts. A three-judge panel on the 11th 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the state to enforce its ban.

“This is in the sort of Islamophobic toolbox that Abbott is picking up to rehash this old conspiratorial thinking to criminalize Muslims,” said Habiba Noor, a lecturer at Trinity University.

Noor said framing CAIR as part of the Muslim Brotherhood is a conspiracy theory that has existed since it was founded in the 1990s. She speculated the recent flare-up of trying to tie the two together stems from plans to develop an Islamic community near Dallas.

The East Plano Islamic Center proposed a residential development, called EPIC City, that would include more than 1,000 residential units, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and retail shops, among other features.

The project drew controversy and became the subject of multiple investigations.

In an effort to stop the development, Abbott signed into law a bill prohibiting residential developments from building “Sharia compounds” and from discriminating against Texans. However, there are no indications that the organizers of EPIC City intend to operate under Sharia law.

Additionally, the corporation managing the development, Community Capital Partners, agreed to abide by the Texas Fair Housing Act and implement fair housing policies.

Tuesday’s proclamation would not apply to EPIC, which is a Texas-based nonprofit organization. CAIR is also not directly affiliated with EPIC, though the Dallas-Fort Worth office condemned Abbott’s investigation into EPIC City.

“The tie to land goes back to this conflict over EPIC City and so it's like yet another sort of move to kind of deny Muslims the right to develop properties together as a community,” Noor said.

State Rep. Cole Hefner, who sponsored the law, cheered Abbott on Tuesday.

“This move gives our state powerful new tools to stop extremist networks, block them from buying land, and hold anyone who aids or finances them accountable,” he said on in a statement on social media. “Texas will not allow groups tied to Hamas and global terrorism to take root here.

Disappointed, but not surprised

Since he was 10, Shayan Sajid has been attending Maryam Islamic Center in Sugarland, a suburb of Houston, which is estimated to be home to the state’s largest Muslim population. Sajid said that although Abbott’s announcement didn’t surprise him, he was disappointed.

"It's an unfortunate reminder that at times, living in this country and living in Texas, even being in a city as diverse as Houston, we still get so much Islamophobia,” Sajid said, “and not just from random individuals, but from very, you know, powerful individuals."

Sajid said CAIR “is literally something that's just out there to help individuals.”

“There's zero harm in it,” he continued. “I know individuals who do work for CAIR or who have worked for CAIR, like there's literally nothing there to be afraid of, nothing there that's tying them to any dangerous organizations or any dangerous intentions.”

Legal liablity

Abbott’s declaration opens up an array of potential constitutional issues, said Emily Berman, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Limiting property purchases based on viewpoints and religious affiliation could prove problematic under the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

“What is the motivation of these designations?” Berman said. “Is it about their religious views? Is it about their viewpoints on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would be another First Amendment red flag? You can't discriminate on the basis of someone's viewpoint.”

The designation also raises due process concerns, Berman said, given that it’s not clear how groups can formally challenge the designation.

The U.S. Secretary of State holds the power to designate a group a foreign terrorist organization, though they must notify Congress and publish the designation in the Federal Register. An organization can appeal that designation within 30 days of that publication.

It’s not clear whether such a process exists at the state level. In the order, Abbott said he consulted with Freeman Martin, Texas Department of Public Safety director, and the state’s Homeland Security Council to determine whether to make the designation as required under state law. Whether groups can appeal the state-level designations is unclear.

It’s possible CAIR, for example, could challenge the law in court by arguing the state is overstepping its bounds by making laws around national security matters, Berman said.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.