Overview
- Gov. Greg Abbott announced the designations in an X post, labeling both organizations foreign terrorist and transnational criminal groups under state authority.
- The action blocks the groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas and authorizes the state attorney general to seek lawsuits to shut down their activities.
- Abbott’s office said “heightened enforcement” will follow, with detailed guidance to come from the attorney general, and Texas is the first state to impose such sweeping restrictions on CAIR.
- CAIR denies any ties to terrorism and, on its website, characterizes the allegations as anti-Muslim and comparable to past government smears of civil-rights groups.
- Legal challenges and political fallout are expected, with critics citing free-speech and religious-discrimination concerns as supporters point to security, while federal efforts to broadly designate these groups have not been enacted beyond affiliates like Hamas.