HOUSTON — IF I’ve learned anything living in Texas, lo, these many years, it is that actions that seem nuts or cruel on the surface usually have some rational basis down below. But I’m struggling to see this one.

Last month, our governor, Greg Abbott, announced that he was joining several other governors in refusing to allow refugees from war-torn Syria to enter Texas. Mr. Abbott wrote the president that the administration’s policy of accepting a measly 10,000 desperate people “irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.”

Whether or not Mr. Abbott has the legal right to deny federal authority, he wagged his finger at the leader of the free world and said, “No, sir.” And now the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, with the governor’s backing, is suing the United States, various federal agencies and a refugee resettlement nonprofit to keep a Syrian family of six from moving to the Dallas area — again, citing safety concerns.

Having observed Mr. Abbott for nearly a year as governor (and for 12 years before that as state attorney general, an elective office here), I’m still pondering his psychological and legal moves. I can’t make up my mind, for example, whether he is as cynical as our former panderer in chief, Gov. Rick Perry, or whether he’s more like Senator Ted Cruz, who is, for better or worse, a true believer in … something.