Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan threw his support behind a striking border security bill that would create a state unit of officers empowered to “repel” and arrest migrants crossing the border outside a port of entry and return migrants to Mexico if they were seen trying to illegally cross the border.
House Bill 20, the priority legislation filed by state Rep. Matt Schaefer, would certainly test the boundaries of the state’s ability to enforce immigration law, which courts have historically ruled falls under federal jurisdiction.
The upper chamber will also be testing the state’s immigration enforcement authority. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, announced he was backing Senate legislation that would make it a state crime for people who cross into Texas illegally, with a one to two years in jail if the person tries to enter a second time. The proposal would also punish the person to life in prison if they had been previously convicted of a felony. The Senate bill, proposed by Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, would jail a person for a year or two years if the person tried to enter the country a second time. The proposal would also punish the person to life in prison if they had been previously convicted of a felony.
Currently, under federal law, a person arrested for entering the country without permission could be charged with a misdemeanor. If Border Patrol agents arrest them a second time, the person could be charged with a felony and be banned from entering the country for a certain amount of years.
The House bill creates a “Border Protection Unit” whose officers can “arrest, detain, and deter individuals crossing the border illegally including with the use of non-deadly force.”
The bill says the officers of the unit must be U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents or have law enforcement experience. The bill also proposes to give offi cers in this unit immunity “from criminal and civil liability for any actions taken that are authorized” by the proposed law. The bill also says the unit chief could employ civilians who have not been convicted of a felony “to participate in unit operations and functions, but such persons may not have arresting authority unless trained and specifically authorized by the governor.”
Similar to the Senate bill, House legislation would also make trespassing on private property in Texas by migrants entering from Mexico a felony.
The legislation also states that if the federal government ever declared another national public health emergency over COVID-19 or has in place any COVID-19 vaccination requirements for any U.S. citizens including government and health care workers, then the state would be allowed to remove migrants “as rapidly as possible.”
The proposal comes as Texas has spent more than $4 billion to slow the number of migrants crossing into the state. In the past two years, state lawmakers have sent thousands of DPS troopers and National Guard service members to the border in an attempt to deter illegal migrants from entering into the state.
The state has also devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to erecting a state-funded border wall and prosecuting illegal migrants who have crossed the border in state court for offenses such as trespassing. In the fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, Border Patrol agents arrested migrants 2.4 million times — a record-breaking number.
Chelsie Kramer, the Texas organizer for the American Immigration Council, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates for immigrants, said state laws that are meant only to deter migrants won’t provide long term solutions. She added that during a time in which employers are seeking workers, Texans should be looking to immigrants to help fill those jobs.
“No matter how hard leadership may want to stop immigration it’s not going to stop,” she said. “Instead, we should be looking for ways to use the population coming to the U.S. to bolster our economy.”