Texas officials are emboldened to make sweeping actions in their approach to border security, healthcare and education ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House this upcoming January.
Trump won Texas in the Nov. 5 presidential election, earning the state’s 40 electoral votes and the praises of Texas officials early on election night. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has an openly rocky relationship with the Biden-Harris administration over their immigration policies, congratulated Trump and Vance on their “overwhelming victory” in a press release that same night.
Trump’s win marks yet another victory for the Republican party in the state, continuing Texas’s red streak. However, following his victory, Texas Republican officials are taking legislative action at an alarmingly fast rate.
Within less than a month of Trump’s regained ticket to the presidency, Texas officials have openly expressed support for mass deportations through Texas, Bible-infused curriculum and the requirement for medical professionals to ask for a patient's citizenship before receiving treatment.
Texas’ recent actions on border security
Mass deportation was at the center of Trump’s campaign for the presidency, and it is an initiative that Republican Texas officials are willing to help advance.
Gov. Abbott has a long-standing history of implementing strict border control and aggressive measures along the Rio Grande. Despite ongoing legal battles with the Biden administration, Abbott said he will not remove the barrier buoys.
Abbott plans on expanding floating marine barriers along the Texas-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas to advance the state-run Operation Lone Star. Despite the drop in border crossings in the state, Texas Department of Public Safety officers are practicing “mass migration response” exercises in anticipation of a surge around Trump’s inauguration. These exercises involve flashing their red and blue lights every few hundred feet along the border.
Officials now have their sights set on another area of the Texas-Mexico border to further their aggressive anti-immigration policies and support President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) is offering Trump a 1,400-acre Starr County ranch for the construction of deportation facilities, according to a letter from the office of Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. GLO recently bought the land situated near Rio Grande City, Texas and is already offering to build a facility “for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals.”
The GLO is set to start the construction of the wall along the property’s Texas-Mexico border soon. As for their offer, Trump’s border czar pick Tom Holman told The Hill on Nov. 20 that the administration will "absolutely" use the land for their deportation efforts.
Texas’ control of education
The Republican-dominated Texas State Board of Education will ask the Texas legislature in January to pass a state law granting the Board authority to “to create rules, procedures and timelines” for the review process before books are available in school libraries.
A majority panel on the Board of Education said they want more control over whether public school library books are considered sexually explicit or not, according to the Texas Tribune. If their request passes the legislature when it convenes in January, this would drastically shift control over public school books from local districts to the state level.
This is not an isolated event, as Texas officials have moved to increasingly control what content is available to students in public schools. This November, the Board took another leap to influencing Texas public school curriculum itself.
State-authored elementary curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency allegedly includes biblical teachings and allusions to Christianity. It was approved by the Board to be available in classrooms for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Texas school districts can still choose their own lesson plans and are not required to adopt the materials of the new Bluebonnet Learning curriculum. However, the state is incentivizing the use of these lessons, offering school districts that implement the program $60 per student. Local and national education organizations, as well as Texas parents, have criticized the move, citing the lack of separation between Church and State.
After Election Day, Gov. Abbott expressed his confidence that Texas Republicans' wins would be the push necessary to implement a school voucher program, one of his top legislative priorities which would give families state funds to pay for their children’s private schooling.
While it remains unclear whether Abbott's priority – echoing Trump’s school choice agenda – will succeed this upcoming year, a potential failure to pass the voucher program could leave Texas public school education hanging in the balance. Last legislative session, Abbott was reluctant to fulfill his promises to fully fund Texas public schools and give teachers a pay raise due to the vouchers not being passed in the Texas Legislature.
Threats to healthcare
Porsha Ngumezi is the third woman to die under Texas’ strict abortion ban. Texas doctors were reluctant to perform a D&C, or dilation and curettage, where a straw-like tube is inserted into the uterus and suctions out any remaining pregnancy tissue. This lack of action’s cost? Her life.
Since a D&C could be used to terminate a pregnancy, Texas health care professionals are restricted by the state’s anti-abortion legislation from performing the procedure. Despite the increase in deaths related to its abortion ban, Texas has not changed its legislation.
Abortion remains on lawmakers’ agenda for the 89th legislative session in January. Austin Rep. Donna Howard has filed two bills to expand legal allowances for abortions. The outcome of this filing will be seen next year, with some Democrats hopeful despite similar bills not receiving a hearing last session.
Gov. Abbott remains actively involved in reshaping Texas hospitals, but not to increase abortion access. His executive order issued this summer requires public Texas hospitals that accept Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Plan coverage to ask patients about their citizenship or immigration status and report the data to the state, although their answer will not affect their care. Going into effect Nov. 1, Abbott claims this is necessary to demonstrate the cost of care for undocumented individuals and will call for reimbursement from the Biden administration.
“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” he said in a statement in August.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, patients cannot be forced to answer this question. While a person’s citizenship status should not impact patient care under the federal law, it can induce anxiety in patients and deter undocumented individuals from receiving necessary medical care.
Texas’ swift pursuit of aggressive measures in immigration and conservative agendas in healthcare and education are only ramping up. The inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and the next session of the State Legislature can continue to push significant policy changes in Texas come January.