In Texas, You Can Already See Project 2025 In Action
Texas policy is an example of the impacts conservative policy nonprofits have on the state-level
Texas has been in the news a lot over the last several years thanks in large part to Governor Greg Abbott’s anti-Latino-immigrant stance. He and Texas Republicans have made it clear who they’re referring to when they say “illegal aliens” as they point to brown Spanish-speaking faces to villainize. Rhetoric that makes us all targets while using faces that look like so many of us.
Abbott and Texas Republicans have been behind an effort to implement immigration policies similar to those proposed in Project 2025. After the passage of SB 4 earlier this year, police can now question and arrest anyone they believe entered Texas “illegally”. While Republicans say the law is meant to target migrants who recently crossed the border, its wording opens the potential for the arrests of U.S. citizens who have Latino last names or look like they’re Latino.
This has happened multiple times in recent years and the new laws are expected to worsen the problem. According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 80 percent of people arrested and booked into Operation Lone Star (OLS) processing centers in two counties between June 2021 and July 2023 were U.S. citizens with a median age of 26. The state is providing a test bed for what the early stages of a mass deportation program could be like.
While Texas doesn’t have the Trumpian camps (yet), many believe Gov. Abbott is working toward them with the construction of a National Guard military “base camp” dubbed Forward Operating Base Eagle along the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass. Currently, the state turns migrants over to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) which often uses local and county jails to house migrants on “ICE holds” when necessary.
What Texas also shows us is how expanded expedited removal policies, like those proposed by Trump and Project 2025, highlight the negative impact of allowing the government to mass deport people without due process. Not only do these policies allow for the removal, arrest, and detention of immigrants without a warrant, but they also make migrants here legally and Latinos subject to proving they are citizens based on what a cop thinks they should have.
The loss of due process under Project 2025 is dystopian. It provides little or no time to seek legal help and immigrants would be expeditiously removed from the U.S. For a Latino with the potential of being picked on by a random cop who doesn’t even know what he wants from you to prove you’re a citizen, the lack of access to legal help is somewhat startling. Most cops don’t know anything about immigration except for what they see on TV and online, thus, creating an environment for misidentification and race-based misconduct.
But Wait! There’s More!
You don’t have to look far in Texas to see the impacts other Project 2025-like policies are doing. From one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country to underfunding education, and a faltering healthcare system, these aren’t something anyone can blame migrants from Central America for. Rapes have exploded in Texas, women are forced to have babies whether viable or not, and some women are forced to die due to a lack of adequate women’s healthcare.
Texas Republicans refused to vote for school funding last year if it didn’t include language for school vouchers that would suck funds away from public schools and into the pockets of private school shareholders. Texas ranks 41st among all states in per-student education funding resulting in 73% of Texas school districts being left underfunded and 17% severely underfunded.
In 2024, the largest school districts in the state suffered major budget cuts and are struggling to meet the needs of its students. An analysis from the Austin-American Statesman earlier this year found that per-student funding for 2024 is down 12.9% when adjusted for inflation. The Texas Association of School Boards also found that funding decreased by $590 per student (inflation-adjusted) over the last 10 years.
Did Gov. Abbott's spending more than $11 billion of Texan taxpayer dollars on immigration political theater (just to turn migrants over to CBP) make a difference? No. It didn’t. Mexico stopping migrants made a bigger difference than Abbott ever could. While there are many questions about Mexican authorities' treatment of migrants, Mexico did for the U.S. what Abbott only wishes he could and it did it at a fraction of the cost.
The only changes in Texas are the school and healthcare systems failing.
Meanwhile, a large portion of the U.S. who support mass deportations haven’t even weighed the social and economic consequences of such an inhumane policy idea (bigotry is expensive). For Latinos, this should serve as a warning. Republicans have embraced a Christian nationalist idea not unlike the Ku Klux Klan. It’s an exclusive club based largely on the paper bag test.
I hope for all our sake, you’re paying attention because we’re all on their list.
I’m a freelance journalist. Find my work at Latino Rebels, Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp
Scary times that's for sure... In NC they're coming for the schools as well it's disheartening.