The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, on Monday issued what it calls a National Alert, only the second such alert in the organization’s history.

What You Need To Know

  • The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, on Monday issued what it calls a National Alert

  • The group said that Gov. Greg Abbott’s tough immigration rhetoric may encourage white extremists “with a hate agenda” to travel to Texas

  • Abbott has repeatedly stated that he’s taking steps to secure the Texas-Mexico border because the Biden administration has failed to do so

  • Abbott has also said that migrants seeking asylum may do so at any of the state’s legal ports of entry

The group said that Gov. Greg Abbott’s tough immigration rhetoric may encourage white extremists “with a hate agenda” to travel to Texas.

It cited the 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in which the gunman killed 23 people and injured 22 others. The FBI investigated the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and as a hate crime.

“False and inciteful political rhetoric from Governor Greg Abbott is agitating people to possibly commit acts of violence and mass murder. We urge our members, especially those in Texas, to be on alert for armed out-of-state extremists with a hate agenda,” Domingo Garcia, LULAC national president, said in a news release. “We’ve seen death at the hands of shooters due to hate speech. We cannot forget what occurred at the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, just a few years ago. Hate speech is being used yet again to rachet up anger and hatred that are putting Hispanic Texans, law enforcement, military service members, and innocent civilians in the crosshairs.”

LULAC issued its first National Alert in May 2023, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718. The sweeping immigration bill provided $12 million for DeSantis’ migrant relocation initiative, which drew national attention in 2022 when the governor flew a group of South American migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a move intended to protest federal immigration policy.

In the wake of the signature of SB 1718, LULAC warned against traveling to Florida. It claimed the law would unleash “a wave of anti-immigrant measures against Latinos in the state.”

Abbott has repeatedly stated that he’s taking steps to secure the Texas-Mexico border because the Biden administration has failed to do so. He has said that migrants seeking asylum may do so at any of the state’s legal ports of entry.

Texas and the Biden administration remain in a legal battle, chiefly over the concertina razor wire and floating buoy barrier the state has placed in and around the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled the Biden administration can cut the razor wire, though legal proceedings are ongoing. Texas continues to add razor wire to a roughly 30-mile stretch along the river.

“These stunts by Abbott and others are encouraging lawlessness and do nothing to solve the broken immigration system. LULAC is committed to comprehensive immigration reform,” said Lydia Guzman, LULAC’s national immigration chair. “The Supreme Court ruled that erecting deadly barriers is illegal, and it is also inhumane to let women, children, and families die because of them.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.