Texas's governor, Greg Abbott, has always been a little ahead of the national news and public opinion.

He sees things others don't.

He almost singlehandedly shifted the public debate against illegal immigration, when, after Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis flew a shipment of illegals from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, exposing wealthy leftists in exclusive enclaves as hypocrites, Abbott continued the maneuver on a grand scale, by offering free bus rides to illegals to New York City and beyond, transporting more than 100,000 illegal border crossers. That made a major impact in New York City, blowing out its budget and forcing its mayor to eventually say he wanted to be a Republican.

Abbott also managed to block caravans coming in, and defied the Biden administration by setting up blockages on the Rio Grande, making it far more difficult for migrants to swim across. He also placed razor wire in some parts of the border -- and while he lost Biden's court case against it, saw how the Border Patrol wouldn't cooperate in taking it down.

This was a harbinger of what was to come as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris opened the border wide, even distant and fancy areas were flooded with human waves of foreign migrants and yes, immigration became a top issue in the 2024 elections. It would have been ignored otherwise.

He similarly raised public awareness of the NGO migrant industrial complex in his attorney-general's prosecution of Catholic Charities for migrant laundering, demanding that the group open its books as required by law of any NGO to show what it was spending its federal cash on. The group resisted and now has a court case. That maneuver, blasted by the pope and some radical leftist bishops did much to shine a light on NGOs' role in encouraging illegal immigration based on its incentives for federal funding, the more illegal migrants it can service, the more federal cash they can access. It was unprecedented, shining a light on a part of illegal immigration that has contributed to the border surge same as cartel human smugglers and Biden himself in his policy.

Now he's stepping ahead of the curve again -- putting up billboards in multiple languages around Mexico to warn potential illegal migrants not to cross illegally in the hands of human smugglers -- they will be harmed, they will be arrested.

Bill Melugin at Fox News has a tweet of what he's doing and the approach he's taking:

Up until now, the Biden administration has mostly posted newspaper and radio ads, and not many, certainly none with these kinds of realistic warnings -- your wife will be raped, your kids will be enslaved, you will find yourself in handcuffs -- in the classic public service announcement style. With migrants passing through these routes, they are sure to have an impact.

And they are ultimately compassionate, given that none of the warnings are unrealistic. These are exactly the kinds of things that happen to those who place their trust and cash in the hands of human smuggling rackets. Many end up as child labor or prostitutes in indentured servitude to pay their "debts." Many end up as outright slaves, re-introducing slavery into the Americas.

What are the bishops going to do, condemn this? Is the pope going to condemn this, too? They are all on record as deploring the bad treatment migrants get at the hands of smugglers (albeit mostly on those who oppose illegal immigration). Now it's time for them to either admit they are as hypocritical as the Martha's Vineyard denizens, this time addicted to the money migrants bring in to their organizations, or else prove they mean it by supporting it, or at least keeping their mouths shut.

It raises questions as to why the Biden administration never bothered doing this -- and we all know why they didn't. They were too busy Letting Them In. They had a political interest in promoting illegal immigration, and too bad about all the child slaves and raped women. Too bad about all the people who died in locked trucks around cities like San Antonio, or in car chases around San Diego County. Too bad about all the two-year-olds dumped in the desert at the border.

Abbott is taking another important step that could dissuade illegal migrants from coming in and like everything else he does, it could well make a difference. He is to be praised for his initiative.

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This post has been corrected from an earlier version that misidentified Abbott's role. The Martha's Vinyard maneuver was launched by Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis from migrants ensconced in Texas. Abbott then magnified the maneuver through the great busings to blue cities that followed.