Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has told a right-wing radio host that there’s only one tool the state isn’t using to stop migrants from crossing the border into Texas: gun violence, because it would prompt a response from the pesky federal government.
“The only thing that we are not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border—because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” the Republican governor told former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch on her radio show last week.
Biden isn’t a law enforcement official. He’s not a DA. He’s not a police officer. He doesn’t have the ability to have you arrested. I suspect Abbott knows this, but his constituents are too fucking stupid to understand the difference.
On the other hand, if Abbot did indeed order his people to start murdering migrants, you know that the decision to move forward with prosecution would need at least a half nod from Biden. At least on the federal level.
The Judiciary doesn’t decide prosecution, the Attorney General does.
In this case, that would be Merrick Garland, who was appointed by Biden, and serves on Biden’s Cabinet.
Do remember that the President of the United States is the head of the Executive Branch, of which the Department of Justice is a part. This is basic High School civics stuff.
Yeah because it’s federal policy not to just shoot somebody that crossed the border. Put the fucking politics aside for a second, this guy said the only reason we don’t kill them is because it’s against federal law. Yeah no shit.
It’s not the reason sane people don’t start murdering, but it is the reason Abbott hasn’t.
Says more about Abbott than it does the rest of us.
But no, the point was that arresting a sitting governor would be a massive political move, and the AG would likely run that by his boss (the president) before doing it. But I get the feeling he would still do it regardless, and that Biden would okay it regardless.
in a “citizens arrest”, sure. But he physically himself cannot perform police functions. If he orders an arrest and the arrest is illegal then that person would be acquitted.
