Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who has built a long record opposing state border enforcement measures, is expected to reconsider how Texas cooperates with federal immigration authorities once she takes office, though existing state laws will limit how far she can go.
Hinojosa, a former state representative, voted against the 2017 version of Senate Bill 4, which banned sanctuary cities in Texas and required state and local law enforcement to honor federal immigration detainers. She also voted against a separate 2023 Senate Bill 4, which made illegal entry or re-entry into Texas a state crime and authorized state judges to order removal. That 2023 law was tied up in litigation for years before it was allowed to take effect in May 2026, though its constitutionality remains under legal challenge.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin highlighted the implications of Hinojosa’s election in comments circulated online, noting that she has called on Governor Greg Abbott to end state and local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an order she could issue on her first day in office.
“Should there be another border crisis in coming years, there will likely be no resistance from Texas at the border. No Texas DPS, no TX National Guard, no razor wire or water buoys, and no Operation Lone Star,” Melugin wrote.
Hinojosa has previously described Operation Lone Star, the state’s multibillion-dollar border security initiative launched under Abbott, as a “dog and pony show” and “political theater.”
Melugin’s comments pointed back to 2021, when roughly 15,000 Haitian migrants crossed into Del Rio, Texas, and gathered under the international bridge. At the time, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, acting on Abbott’s orders, lined up patrol vehicles to block further crossings after federal Border Patrol agents were initially overwhelmed by the scale of the arrivals.
Not all border security measures will be within the new governor’s reach to unwind. The Texas legislature has passed laws that remain on the books regardless of who holds the governor’s office, including the 2023 SB 4 statute now in effect and Senate Bill 3, which authorized $1.54 billion in spending on border operations and barrier construction, along with several related measures.
Still, the governor retains substantial authority over how state law enforcement agencies, including DPS and the Texas National Guard, choose to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement on a discretionary basis.
Melugin also noted a broader vulnerability in federal border policy: because Congress has not codified many of President Trump’s border security measures into law, a future Democratic president could reverse those executive-level policies immediately upon taking office in 2028, potentially returning Border Patrol to a catch-and-release approach similar to what was in place under President Biden.
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