Attorney General Merrick Garland has notified Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott that the Department of Justice will sue Texas if the governor doesn’t rescind his executive order allowing Texas cops to pull over any car they believe are carrying “migrants” who could spread the coronavirus.
According to a letter Garland sent to Abbott, the executive order is both “dangerous and unlawful” because of it allows the state to override the authority of the federal government regarding immigration as granted by the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
“The United States advances its immigration and public health functions in Texas through a variety of federal officials, contractors, and grantees,” Garland notes. “Some federal officials who work in Texas on behalf of agencies including the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency may not be considered ‘enforcement official[s ]’ exempted from the Order.”