Texas’ New Democrat Governor Has Some Predictable Plans for Border Policy

Under Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas became an instrumental partner to the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort during his second term in office. 

That’s about to change.

Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, fresh off her Tuesday victory, has already signaled that Texas will reconsider its collaboration with federal immigration authorities under her administration.

While serving in the state legislature, Hinojosa voted against funding Operation Lone Star, which Abbott launched in 2021 to address the border crisis. Now, she is looking at ending the initiative.

“What has happened is we’ve spent billions of dollars in this state, billions of dollars to detain immigrants, to police for immigrants,” she said in an interview. “We need a review of Operation Lone Star.”

Texas attorney general-elect Nathan Johnson will look into the agreements state agencies have made with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“If I were to keep that agreement, it’s going to be because ICE opens itself up to a true partnership, which gives me private individual investigative authority over actions by ICE committed in my state,” Johnson said. 

Johnson has also argued that Texas “should not divert vital resources away from public safety to score political points.”

The City of Houston has already given a preview into how immigration policy in Texas is about to change. Mayor John Whitmire on Friday signed a directive limiting cooperation between ICE and Houston police during traffic stops. “I’ve said many times: elections matter,” he said.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, a border-district Democrat poised to chair the DHS Appropriations Committee, fires back at the “Abolish ICE” wing of his own party and rips the Biden administration’s border policies in a blunt warning to Democrats heading into 2028. Cuellar tells Fox News Digital that most Democrats don’t support defunding ICE, but he says the agency needs “serious rail guards.” He also takes aim at Biden’s asylum approach: “We just can’t open up the border and just say anybody that wants to claim asylum can come to the borders. That policy under Biden administration, I hope that every Democrat running for national office doesn’t do that anymore.” Meanwhile, Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, who has sharply criticized Gov. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star as a political “grandstand,” has never called for ending all cooperation with ICE. Cuellar says he hasn’t heard her support defunding the agency. Full story here https://t.co/FchenihPHu

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) November 9, 2026

However, Republicans still hold the Texas Senate, which means Hinojosa won’t be able to run roughshod over all of Abbott’s policies. A 2025 law requires sheriffs across the state to comply with the ICE agreements. Johnson will be the one who enforces this law, and he already said he’d enforce it against sheriffs who flout it without a valid reason, even though he opposes the measure.

Trump says that if Gov.-elect Hinojosa doesn’t continue his border policies in Texas, “I will” https://t.co/7DCbvfFob5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2026

Federal immigration authorities are already preparing for the changes. One Border Patrol agent told the Washington Examiner, “I fear that now Texas will bar any law enforcement working with us like they do in California.”

President Donald Trump, asked Thursday about the issue, said, “If they don’t continue my policy, I will.”

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