Texas, Biden administration continue to clash over border amid bipartisan immigration deal
Sources close to the current bipartisan immigration deal being worked on by members of the U.S. Senate in Washington say the deal could be struck as soon as next week.
They tell CBS News among the measures, the legislation would give the president the power to pause asylum processing during spikes in the volume of illegal border crossings.
Additionally, it could expedite removals, and shorten the wait time for asylum case decisions.
It would also raise the standard for those cases.
This weekend, President Joe Biden pushed for the deal, saying, "If that bill were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly."
Former President Donald Trump is being accused of trying to stop the deal from happening.
At a campaign rally over the weekend, he said, "I'd rather have no bill than a bad bill. A bad bill you can't have"
Meanwhile, in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott remains defiant of current orders from the federal government to cease and desist various efforts he is leading on behalf of the state to protect the Texas border with Mexico.
His current stand-off with the federal government has caused many of his supporters and critics to wonder if he would uphold and support the aforementioned Senate deal if it become law.
SMU constitutional law professor and expert Jeffrey Kahn said, "Governor Abbott seems to have forgotten that he is the governor of one of 50 states and not the president of a republic of Texas."
He said it's hard to tell what Abbott would do, but he did say in the past governors who defied federal law didn't do so well.
He cited the case of "Operation Arkansas," when in 1957, Gov. Orville Faubus refused to desegregate schools following the Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education ruling.
The U.S. Army had to be sent to Little Rock Central High School to uphold the law that Faubus wouldn't.
Kahn said that kind of tension creates deep problems and conflicting precedence for state and federal government relations moving forward.
Kahn added, "When one particular state purports to make policy for the rest of the United States. It deprives those other 49 states and their representatives in Congress of their proper role in making federal policy for all of the United States."
Whether the Senate deal becomes law or not, Kahn said the roles of state and federal government in matters of immigration are already spoken for.
He said, "So, the law both statutory and constitutional law is very clear. It is the federal government, not the states that is responsible for our international borders."
We asked Abbott's office if the governor would uphold and support the deal if it became law.
CBS News Texas has not yet received a response.
