Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® said shooting people who cross the border is the only tool the state is not using to deter migrants because the Biden administration would sue the state for “murder.”

“We are using every tool that can be used from building a border wall, to building these border barriers, to passing this law that I signed that led to another lawsuit by the Biden administration where I signed a law making it illegal for somebody to enter Texas from another country,” Abbott said on “The Dana Loesch Show” last week.

“The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” Abbott later added.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa blasted Abbott’s remarks in a statement issued Thursday.

“The only thing stopping Greg Abbott from ordering law enforcement to shoot migrant women and children are murder charges. Time and time again, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it abundantly clear they have no morality or humanity,” Hinojosa said in a lengthy statement.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    International law too. They have the right to seek amnesty. You murder them and there will nowhere to hide.

    • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Why would someone seeking amnesty cross the border at a random spot, rather than an official border crossing where they could tell the workers they are seeking amnesty?

      • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Per international law, they must stand on foreign ground, not a particular place or time. A few years ago I saw figures which indicated most US illegal immigrants to the US actually fly into the US and overstay their visas. They too can request amnesty at any time and anywhere in the US.

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Because that would actually lower your chances of receiving amnesty. And it’s not like they can just go home once denied.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        11 months ago

        The problem is, since Trump, we completely fucked up the process for requesting refugee status, and that’s what these people are requesting, amnesty is a related, but different thing:

        https://www.usa.gov/refugee

        “Typically, to apply, you must first register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the country to which you have fled. UNHCR will determine if you qualify for refugee status.”

        Same for requesting asylum:

        https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/asylum/obtaining-asylum-in-the-united-states

        “To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process you must be physically present in the United States. You may apply for asylum regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.”

        In order to request asylum or refugee status, you have to be INSIDE the US, and we’ve been turning away potential refugees at the border:

        https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-06-20/biden-asylum-seekers-turned-down-rates

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That defeats the purpose.

        You have an absolute right under natural law to trespass onto your neighbor’s property, bang on the door in the middle of the night, and ask for help. They could refuse.

        Natural law puts you under their protection while you ask, and while they decide.

      • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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        11 months ago

        “why would you not go to the places where the people putting you in concentration camps prefer to catch you?” 🤔

        Probably much safer to try and get into New Mexico or California and THEN seek asylum than to give yourself up to the people allowed to do anything short of murdering you who don’t even always abide by THAT restriction.

      • badmemes@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        Maybe because at these spots there are many people that only don’t shoot them becazse they would be charged by the feds if they did.

        Im not sure you would trust them to treat you fairly if you sought amnesty.

  • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Yes, it’s against the law to murder people, very good.

    It’s supposed to get cold there this weekend Greg, maybe worry less about migrants and worry more about keeping the lights on.

    • misterundercoat@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Cold snap? Thanks for reminding me that I need to have the staff prepare Mr. Cruz’s usual suite. He gets cranky if he has to wait too long in the executive lounge, despite free margaritas and a breathtaking view of the Carribean.

  • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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    11 months ago

    Wow, imagine PROUDLY proclaiming you would be a psychopathic murderer of people who walked over an imaginary line with absolutely no remorse, but the only thing stopping you is prison time…

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      This is why they’re such strong supporters of violence police and incarceration - they believe society is only held together by violence because that’s the only thing stopping them.

  • RedditReject@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    What was that thing these religious fools like to say? Thou shalt not kill?

    Or is he just displaying his “Christian” pro-life values

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If one of those migrants is pregnant, though, then wouldn’t a nosy neighbor in Texas get to sue them for murder, or something?

  • Coach@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Alternate headline: “Abbott: Hunting season for migrants is open.”

    What a sick fuck!

      • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Maaaan these christofascists would HATE the real Jesus if he came back

        He’d definitely free all the detained immigrants and flog the people who put them there

  • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Ah, so the reason you don’t shoot innocent people is not because it’s immoral? It’s because you’ll get caught?

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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    11 months ago

    Obviously the biggest takeaway is going to be that Abbott would shoot migrants if there weren’t a federal law. Further sacrificing morality for cheap political points, yes. It dehumanizes and normalizes xenophobic murder. And seeing what has happened with Trump normalizing political violence, at this point we can almost predict when a politician does this, it’s going to be taken as the green light for violence by some extremist on the verge of action.

    It’s also one more step down the fascism spiral. Because it’s implicitly a rallying cry to remove another constraint. It signals to the base that what we should be doing (if not for those meddlesome Democrats) is shooting migrants and is another endorsement of a system that allows arbitrary violence.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” Abbott later added.

    He didn’t clarify that immediately, he took a while. Hmm.