Texas state representative Gene Wu wears a House Democratic Caucus pin during a news conference in Aurora, Ill., on Aug. 5, 2025. Credit - Audrey Richardson—Bloomberg/Getty Images
President Donald Trump suggested the FBI may get involved in bringing a group of Texas Democrats back to their home state.
“They may have to,” Trump said at a White House executive order signing event Tuesday, when he was asked whether the federal law enforcement agency should help locate and arrest the state lawmakers at the center of a political standoff over a Republican redistricting plan. “A lot of people are demanding they come back.”
The controversial redistricting plan, backed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the Trump Administration, would redraw the congressional district map to give Republicans about five more U.S. House seats, which could significantly boost the GOP’s chances of maintaining its slim majority after the 2026 midterm elections. But Democrats in the state legislature have criticized the effort and are resorting to a quorum-busting method of moving to blue states like Illinois and New York to try to stall votes on the plan. Abbott ordered the fleeing lawmakers’ arrest on civil warrants, directed investigations into whether there have been state law violations, and sought to oust the lawmakers from their state legislative seats.
Despite the threats, the Democratic lawmakers appear unfazed. In response to Abbott, the Democratic caucus in the state House issued a succinct statement: “Come and take it.”
Trump is not alone in calling for the FBI’s involvement: Texas’ senior U.S. Senator, John Cornyn, urged the agency, in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday, “to take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled the state.”
It’s unclear whether the FBI will intervene, and the agency did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment. The FBI’s website, however, states that the agency does not “supervise or take over” investigations of state and local law enforcement agencies, as its primary mandate is to look into federal crimes and enforce federal laws. State warrants can only be enforced by state troopers, but the FBI may assist local law enforcement in locating fugitives.
What legal repercussions might the Democrats face?
The act of denying quorum dates back centuries in the Texas legislature. States have their own means of acting upon quorum-breaking in the legislative chambers, and Texas’ House Rules Manual states that “all absentees for whom no sufficient excuse is made may, by order of a majority of those present, be sent for and arrested, wherever they may be found, by the sergeant-at-arms or an officer appointed by the sergeant-at-arms for that purpose, and their attendance shall be secured and retained.” The state Supreme Court in 2021 upheld that rule, giving the House the power to arrest absent members to establish a quorum.
On Monday, the Texas House voted to arrest the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state, enabling the state legislature’s sergeant-at-arms and the Texas Department of Public Safety to conduct these arrests. Abbott said the arrest order will remain in effect “until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol.”
But many have downplayed the arrest warrant, because the lawmakers are no longer in Texas territory. “They like to talk a big game,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat representing Texas’ 30th congressional district, told ABC News on Monday. “You have a lot of intelligent attorneys that actually serve in the Texas House. And so they know that there’s nothing that [Abbott] can do outside of the Texas jurisdiction to bring them in.”
Chad Dunn, a Texas election and voting rights lawyer, told election news outlet Democracy Docket that a warrant issued by the Texas House “is not effective out of the state unless another state chooses to domesticate it and enforce it under that state’s laws.” The Texas Democratic lawmakers, however, have fled to sympathetic Democratic-led states. “We’re very happy to host these heroes,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. “This is not breaking the law, this is a legitimate process that has been used before,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Aug. 4.
Abbott, however, has alleged that several absentee Texas House Democrats “have solicited or received funds to evade conducting legislative business and casting votes.” Abbott said that these lawmakers “may have violated” bribery laws under the Texas Penal Code, which assigns a second-degree felony charge to “one who offers or confers a benefit on any public servant or voter to influence him, and the public servant receiving or soliciting the same.”
State representative Jolanda Jones, who is in New York, said at the Aug. 4 briefing with Hochul: “There is no felony in the Texas Penal Code for what [Abbott] says, so respectfully he’s making up some sh-t, OK? He’s trying to get sound bites. And he has no legal mechanism… he’s putting up smoke and mirrors.”
The Texas Democrats who fled the state are likely to face a $500 daily fine for each day they are absent without leave. The Republican-led state government approved the fine, which must be paid personally and not from office funds or political fundraising, in 2023 after Democratic lawmakers fled for three weeks in 2021 to break quorum on a state election law overhaul.
As for whether the lawmakers could actually be booted from their office and replaced by Abbott, Abbott referred to a 2021 opinion by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that asserts Texas law allows for a legislator’s seat to be considered vacant if a court determines that they forfeited their office by abandonment.
Paxton said Tuesday that starting Friday, a deadline set by Republican Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows, “any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable.” Paxton said he would seek a court order declaring the Democrats to have abandoned their offices. “If you don't show up for work,” he said in a statement, “you get fired.”
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