\t\t\t\t\t![\"Texas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/.webp\")
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made headlines this week saying the White House needed to \u201crecalibrate\u201d Immigration and Customs Enforcement in light of a crackdown in Minneapolis that has seen two U.S. citizens killed by immigration officers. (Patricia Lim | KUT News)<\/p>\n
Texas Republicans appear to be shifting their mindset on how they want border and immigration enforcement to be handled in light of the week\u2019s news<\/a> of a crackdown and two deadly shootings in Minnesota.<\/p>\n But the concern and skepticism about the aggressive tactics comes as polls show the midterms won\u2019t fare well for the GOP nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally these midterms are like a political earthquake, but this is an earthquake that spawned a tsunami,\u201d said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n Immigration being the reason Republicans are looking to have a lackluster performance in the midterms is not normal, definitely not under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cImmigration has always been the strong suit of the president. He\u2019s always had high approval on immigration,\u201d said Sergio Garcia-Rios, an assistant professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and associate director for the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.<\/p>\n RELATED: Here\u2019s who will be on March primary ballots in the Houston area<\/a><\/p>\n Losing on that issue could cause a flip in how well the GOP does among the Hispanic community, especially in South Texas \u2013 including the Rio Grande Valley, where Republicans had managed to flip several counties<\/a> since the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile these Latinos are in the communities that are mostly affected by immigration and by cartels, they want strong borders. They want secure communities. They want safety, but they don\u2019t want their friends and families being deported,\u201d Garcia-Rios said.<\/p>\n Both Rottinghaus and Garcia-Rios believe this is why Gov. Greg Abbott is in headlines saying the White House needs to \u201crecalibrate\u201d<\/a> U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s tactics.<\/p>\n Abbott said that Monday, while speaking with conservative radio talk show host Mark Davis. He specifically said the recalibration should also mean ICE refocusing on the removal of dangerous undocumented immigrants, \u201cwithout causing all the kinds of problems and fighting in communities that they are experiencing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n He wants ICE to be respected again, at least by independents and Republicans.<\/p>\n The comments come after recent events around immigration enforcement in Minnesota \u2014 like the deaths of two U.S. citizens and detention of a 5-year-old boy at an ICE facility in Texas<\/a> \u2014 that have intensified the situation.<\/p>\n RELATED: U.S. District Judge Fred Biery orders release of 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father<\/a><\/p>\n Rottinghaus says that\u2019s because \u201cthese images and the actions, although awful in so many ways, are problematic for Republicans and give Democrats a chance to show why they have been in opposition to this from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas is a state that\u2019s long been one of Trump\u2019s most enthusiastic partners on immigration \u2013 and that isn\u2019t stopping.<\/p>\n In fact, Garcia-Rios says the growing attitude toward ICE and Border Patrol enforcement isn\u2019t \u201cnecessarily a shift. It\u2019s an adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n All the top members of the Texas GOP seem to be making that same slight pivot. Take comments this week from Texas\u2019 U.S. senators, for example.<\/p>\n Sen. John Cornyn went on \u201cThe Mark Davis Show\u201d a day after Abbott\u2019s remarks and said, \u201cI think it\u2019s a good idea to deescalate.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Ted Cruz, on his The Verdict podcast, said, \u201cEscalating the rhetoric doesn\u2019t help and it actually loses credibility. So I would encourage the administration to be more measured.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas Congressman Michael McCaul took to social media<\/a> and called for investigations into the shooting death of Alex Pretti over the weekend.<\/p>\n But like Garcia-Rios said, this is an adjustment and not a shift, and the interviews also include comments that still showcase Republican support for immigration officers.<\/p>\n For instance, Cruz placed blame on Pretti while talking on his podcast saying, \u201che could have chosen to go there and not bring a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n Cornyn, on \u201cThe Mark Davis Show,\u201d said, \u201cThe First Amendment is important, the right to peacefully demonstrate. But we\u2019ve seen some of these protesters in Minneapolis and elsewhere cross a line they should not cross, which is interfering with law enforcement activity.\u201d<\/p>\n So why the shift in some of this messaging? Garcia-Rios thinks the talk of deescalation is a sign that these issues have reached another level \u2014 one Texas Republicans feel the need to address this election year, while still being tough on immigration and deportation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been politicized for many years, but it\u2019s now becoming electoral,\u201d Garcia-Rios said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s where the adjustment is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Rottinghaus says, \u201cRepublican politicians are definitely seeing that the imagery coming out of places like Minnesota are problematic and definitely are liabilities in a political sense.\u201d<\/p>\n More broadly, both Garcia-Rios and Rottinghaus believe any change in tone right now likely isn\u2019t the result of a change of heart \u2013 but rather, the realization that the immigration issue isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here<\/a>. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org<\/a> and KUT.org<\/a>. Thanks for donating today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made headlines this week saying the White House needed to \u201crecalibrate\u201d Immigration and Customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,1829,1724,223,287,27,28194,7458,29,28,13029,17914],"class_list":{"0":"post-146461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-ice","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-gop","15":"tag-texas-governor-greg-abbott","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-texas-republicans","19":"tag-trump-immigration-policy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}