Abbott appeared on "The Dana Show" with Dana Loesch Jan. 5 to discuss the southern border and his legal battles with the U.S. Department of Justice and, most recently, a civil case brought by New York Mayor Eric Adams against 17 charter bus companies that transported migrants from Texas to New York. 

When Loesch asked Abbott what was the maximum amount of pressure that he can use to protect the border, Abbott said “we are using every tool that can be used.”

“We are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can,” said Abbott. “The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”

The Heartland Signal, a Midwest newsroom that covers politics, posted a clip of the interview on X, formerly Twitter, Thursday, and it received 4.1 million views. 

Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, responded to the clip saying “I can’t believe I have to say ‘murdering people is unacceptable.’”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents a part of the San Antonio area, also responded to the clip on X, calling it "hateful, dangerous, sick" rhetoric. 

Abbott also used the word “invasion” multiple times in the interview to describe the situation at the border. 

“Texas has every right to step up and to put the buoys in the water, to build more than 100 miles of razor wire barrier that denies illegal entry, to build the very same border wall that President Trump has built,” Abbott said. 

The federal government has sued the state for both the razor wire barrier and the buoys in the Rio Grande. In the buoy case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling that found that the buoys were illegal, but Abbott posted on social media he would seek a rehearing or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the razor wire case, the appeals court temporarily blocked the Biden administration from removing the fencing.

The governor went on to say that the state can use every tool “from building a border wall to building these border barriers, to passing this law that I signed that led to another lawsuit by the Biden administration, where I signed a law making it illegal for somebody to enter Texas from another country. And they're subject to arrest and subject to deportation.”

That law, Senate Bill 4, allows state police to arrest migrants, even if officers are nowhere near the border. The bill also gives local judges the power to order migrants to leave the U.S. if they entered illegally. Gov. Abbott signed the bill into law back in December, and it is set to go into effect March 5. 

SB 4 sparked legal questions about whether a state has the power to deport people. Quickly after it was signed into law, state groups like the ACLU of Texas, El Paso County, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and American Gateways sued the state to stop the enforcement of the law, and then, on Jan. 4, the U.S. Department of Justice also sued Texas over SB 4.