The governor’s State of the State address is key because it’s where he’ll declare his “emergency items” for the ongoing 2025 Texas legislative session. In the session’s first 60 days, lawmakers are only allowed to pass legislation related to these items.

The soldiers departed Monday from Houston and Fort Worth, marking a change from the Republican governor's legal battles with the Biden administration. Abbott spent the last four years testing a state's ability to enforce immigration law — at times at odds with Border Patrol.

In a series of executive orders Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and directed the state’s criminal justice agency to identify land and facilities that could be used for detaining and deporting undocumented migrants.