The FBI has been asked to get involved and arrest the runaway Texas Democrats, who now have arrest warrants to bring them back to the state.The request, according to the NY Times, was made by Texas Senator Cornyn. However the FBI won’t say if they are getting involved.
The Times also reports that state AG Ken Paxton is giving the runaway Democrats a deadline of Friday to return. After that, he will seek a court order to declare their seats vacant. Who knows how that will go.
Here’s more from the Times:
Senator John Cornyn of Texas asked the F.B.I. on Tuesday to help locate and arrest dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to block the State Legislature from voting on a Republican plan that could help the party keep control of Congress after the 2026 elections.
The potential use of federal agents to round up the Texas lawmakers, who have sought refuge in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, would be a significant step, and could set up a clash between the governors of those Democratic states and the Trump administration.
Hours later, the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that if the absent Democrats did not return by Friday he would seek a court order declaring their seats vacant.
The lawmakers left Texas on Sunday as the state House of Representatives was racing to adopt a redrawn congressional district map, which had been demanded by President Trump.
The proposed map would remake five districts now represented by Democrats to give Republican candidates a significant advantage. “We are entitled to five more seats,” Mr. Trump said in an CNBC interview on Tuesday, giving the justification that he had won the state decisively in last year’s presidential election.
In a letter to the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, Mr. Cornyn, a Republican, said that “federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law.”
The agency declined to comment on whether its agents would get involved.
The senator cited an accusation by Gov. Greg Abbott that the absent Democrats and people who support them may be violating bribery laws over the funding of the walkout. Mr. Abbott directed the Texas Rangers to investigate.
Two Democratic members who had been absent on Monday showed up at the State Capitol on Tuesday, bringing the chamber within just a few members of having a quorum. In all, 54 Democrats out of 62 were recorded as absent at the State House, which met for a few minutes to take roll call.