New Texas legislation could expand the state’s draconian immigration policy
Two bills making their way through the Texas House would implement a new “border protection” court and create a “Border Protection Unit” which would report directly to the governor. The governor could then deputize citizens into its ranks to “arrest, detain, and deter individuals crossing the border illegally, including with the use of non-deadly force.”
Both bills would cement Gov. Greg Abbot’s (R) controversial Operation Lonestar: a $4 billion program that has militarized local police forces and transformed carceral institutions against immigrants and those seeking asylum at the southern border.
The Biden administration’s response to Abbott’s punitive efforts has been tepid, at best.
“Together, the bills amount to a dangerous and extreme effort to expand Texas’ border policing program including the creation of a state-sponsored vigilante border protection unit and the codification and expansion of a border policing, court and jailing system that has, to date, resulted in injuries, deaths, racial discrimination, abusive detention conditions and a chilling effect on freedoms of association and expression,” explained Bob Libal, a Human Rights Watch representative, in his February testimony to the Texas House.
State Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), the key sponsor and author of the Border Protection Unit bill, claimed in a House hearing earlier this month that while “many [migrants] are coming here just for a better life and make wonderful neighbors,” yet “some of them are criminals — rapists, gang members, MS-13.”
It’s unlikely that Schaefer’s “vigilante death squads policy” will make Operation Lonestar any more effective or deter drug trafficking; migrant encounters by Border Patrol have only increased since its implementation. Furthermore, 86% of all individuals convicted for fentanyl trafficking were U.S. citizens.
