Bush turns his focus to border in bid for AG
Top GOP issue not part of his agency’s purview
As he challenges Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the state’s top law enforcement post, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has expanded his agency’s traditionally limited role in border security and immigration, top issues for Republican primary voters.
Bush, who met with law enforcement officials and residents along the border earlier this month on a four-day “Secure the Border” tour, also ventured onto Paxton’s turf over the summer when he sued the Biden administration for halting construction of the border wall that started under former President Donald Trump.
Bush’s agency, the General Land Office, also recently leased a tract of stateowned land to be used for the first 1.3mile segment of Texas’ planned border wall. The commissioner accompanied Gov. Greg Abbott to the border Saturday for a press conference marking the start of wall construction.
Without any room to maneuver to Paxton’s right on border matters, Bush is instead questioning the AG’s competence, arguing Paxton has done little to help overwhelmed local prosecutors enforce Abbott’s plan to jail migrants on state charges, and that Paxton failed to ensure President Joe Biden’s timely compliance with a court order — which arose from a Paxton lawsuit — requiring the reinstatement of a Trump-era program that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending.
“This is the No. 1 issue facing our state,” Bush said between stops on his border tour. “I mean, Ken hasn’t done anything on cartels and criminal networks that are organized on our side of the border, in doing what he possibly can to work with prosecutors in Mexico, to freeze payment systems that these organized criminals are utilizing. … I’m going to bring a different perspective on the issue and leverage every single legal angle that I can.”
Paxton spokesman Ian Prior called Bush’s border tour a “PR stunt” and pointed to high-profile immigration wins for Paxton, including a court order earlier this year blocking new applicants to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and another requiring Biden to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“In contrast to AG Paxton’s significant border-security bona fides, George P. Bush and his family have a long history of being very soft on illegal immigra
tion,” Prior said.
Bush’s uncle, George W. Bush, as president signed federal legislation that produced more than 600 miles of fencing along the border, though he has also criticized Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric.
‘The most important issue’
Republican consultant Craig Murphy said GOP candidates up and down the ballot will make sure “they have a well-known position” on the border, which polling has shown is easily the top issue among conservative voters.
Still, with the AG candidates mostly aligned on immigration and other policy issues, Murphy said he expects the primary will likely come down to Paxton’s record.
“It’s probably not going to be the issue the race hinges on,” Murphy said. “I don’t see it being the thing that people are still talking about in the last week of this campaign or in the last month.”
Paxton, who has been under felony indictment for securities fraud charges since 2015, is up against three challengers on the March primary ballot: Bush, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler. All three have focused on Paxton’s legal woes, which now include an FBI investigation spurred by corruption accusations from top aides in his office.
Bush and Gohmert have argued Paxton is vulnerable, with Bush telling supporters at his campaign kickoff that Democrats will “have their first statewide elected office in close to 30 years” if Paxton is the Republican nominee.
But Paxton’s standing has not yet diminished among the most conservative voters, according to early polling that has shown him leading Bush thanks in part to his appeal to “extremely conservative” voters.
Since taking office in 2015, Paxton has waged numerous highprofile court battles against Biden and former President Barack Obama over immigration, the Affordable Care Act and other policies Texas Republicans oppose. Paxton’s recent legal wins on immigration — along with his endorsement from Trump, the party’s standard bearer on the issue — appear to have kept him in favor with GOP activists and voters.
Still, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has continued to report high levels of migrant encounters along the southern border.
While Abbott has launched a plan known as Operation Lone Star, which calls for migrants to be arrested and jailed largely on state trespassing charges, Bush said Paxton’s office has failed to lend assistance to county attorneys along the border who are tasked with prosecuting the cases.
Bush said he would have organized a unit of prosecutors made up of “willing and able young attorneys in Austin” to help the border counties handle their spike in caseloads. He noted that several hundred migrants arrested on trespassing charges under Abbott’s initiative have been released on no-cost bonds after local prosecutors failed to bring charges for weeks, an apparent violation of state law.
“You can’t just hold people in prison without a charge,” Bush said. “In large part, that’s (happening) because you just don’t have enough boots on the ground to help people.”
‘Give ’em what they want’
By its nature, the Attorney General’s Office, which defends the state’s interests in court, plays a much more direct role in immigration policy than the General Land Office, which typically focuses on politically obscure topics such as veterans benefits and managing oil and gas leases on state land.
Yet in July, Bush found his opening to press on a border issue: a state-owned farm in Starr County that he argued in a federal suit was being negatively impacted by “literal caravans of illegal immigrants” crossing into the U.S. The suit claimed that the Biden administration could not legally block funding for the construction of a border wall approved by Congress under Trump.
Three months later, Paxton, filed a similar suit in a different federal court making the same core argument.
Bush’s campaign immediately attacked the attorney general for duplicating his work.
“Paxton decided to show up and follow suit, largely copying and pasting our filing in a different court,” Bush said.
Bush acknowledged his agency doesn’t typically handle border security issues but argued the border wall case involved the Land Office because the flow of migrants onto state-owned land was decreasing its value.
Prior called Bush’s lawsuit “confusing” and “toothless.”
“In contrast to Bush’s borderwall suit, AG Paxton’s lawsuit is much stronger and filed on behalf of the entire State of Texas, not just a ranch managed by Bush’s office,” Prior said.
Jerry Patterson, Bush’s predecessor, said he never delved into border security and immigration as land commissioner, and argued that Paxton should have been the one to file suit over the wall.
“It’s all about politics. And to be fair, there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Patterson, who tried unsuccessfully to reclaim his seat from Bush in the 2018 primary. “If the people think somebody with a totally unrelated office decides to weigh in on border security and they want him to do it, then give ’em what they want.”