Cornyn Says F.B.I. Will Help Find Texas Lawmakers Who Fled State

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said on Thursday that the F.B.I. had agreed to his request to help track down dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on a redistricting plan.

The activation of federal agents could create a standoff between the Trump administration and state leaders in Illinois, where many of the absent Democrats have taken refuge.

It was not clear on Thursday morning whether federal agents had actually taken action in the case, or what role they might eventually play.

Gov. JB Pritzker has scoffed at the idea that federal agents could be deployed against the Texas lawmakers present in his state. “They’re grandstanding,” Mr. Pritzker said on Wednesday, a day after Mr. Cornyn first proposed federal involvement. “There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation, none they can say that they’re sending F.B.I."

He suggested that federal law enforcement could be used in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers, even if they did not have cause arrest any of them. “The F.B.I. agents might show up just to, I don’t know, again, to put a show on,” he said.

Several Democrats said that as of Thursday morning no federal agents had been seen or reported at their hotel, in St. Charles, Ill., outside of Chicago.

The whereabouts of the Texas lawmakers are widely known, but until now at least, they had considered themselves safe from arrest because they were far from the jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement agencies.

“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the F.B.I. to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Mr. Cornyn said in a statement. “I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable.”

Mr. Cornyn asked the bureau for help in a letter on Tuesday, arguing that the Democratic lawmakers might have violated state bribery laws by accepting money from outside groups to support their efforts to prevent a vote in the Texas House on a redrawn political map.

No criminal warrants have actually been filed against the lawmakers in Texas. The speaker of the Texas House has issued civil warrants against the absent Democrats in order to compel their attendance in the chamber, but those have not been considered enforceable outside of the state during previous legislative walkouts.

Mr. Cornyn has not suggested that federal statutes have been violated. Instead, he said the F.B.I. can help state law enforcement when scofflaws cross state lines.

“F.B.I. has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime,” he wrote. “Specifically, I am concerned that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”

Dozens of Texas Democrats have been in Illinois since Sunday, when they left the state to deny Republicans the quorum needed to hold a vote on the proposed congressional map. The map, pushed for by President Trump, would remake five districts currently held by Democrats so that they heavily favored Republican candidates in the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats nationwide were expected to pick up seats.

The redistricting effort in Texas has rapidly ballooned far beyond the state’s borders. Democratic-lead states like Illinois and California have been threatening to redraw their political maps in response to Texas, and Republican-led states including Missouri and Indiana are looking at doing the same.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.