Hard-right Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has finally spoken out after the fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston — and he has some criticism for the Trump administration.
While he did not go out of his way to speak harshly of Trump or even of ICE, Abbott firmly made clear he thought the shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who reportedly wasn’t even the man ICE was looking for, should never have happened, according to Fox 7 Austin.
“We don’t want to see people shot – period,” said Abbott during a press conference in Houston. “That’s separate from whether the immigration laws are going to be enforced. I fully expect our immigration laws to be enforced, but it’s proven that immigration laws can be enforced and stopping illegal immigration from coming across our border can be achieved without shooting people.”
Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term in office this year, has generally been a loyal ally of both President Donald Trump and the far-right movement in Texas generally; he has fully embraced a moral panic in the state to declare war on supposed instances of “Sharia law.”
But this is not the first time he has pushed back on the Trump administration’s harshest excesses.
In response to Trump’s push to bring all elections under federal review, Abbott told concerned constituents at a political rally, “my understanding of the United States Constitution … is elections for state positions are to be conducted by states, and I don’t think we should deviate from that.” And the last time ICE killings made national news at the start of the year, Abbott said the agency should “recalibrate” to be more careful.
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