Texas has arrested thousands on trespassing charges at the border. Illegal crossings are still high

Starting in March, Texas will give police even broader power to arrest migrants while also allowing local judges to order them out of the U.S. under a new law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. But more than two years into a smaller-scale Texas operation to arrests migrants through misdemeanor criminal trespassing charges, there is little indication the state’s “arrest and jail” efforts reduced border crossings. The initiative has revealed limits of using arrests to deter border-crossers and raises questions about the legal apparatus Texas will use to begin prosecuting migrants on charges of illegal entry.