AUSTIN (1080 KRLD) - Senate Resolution 535 by Republican State Senator Paul Bettencourt spelled out support for President Trump’s border emergency declaration and also had a message to Congress. As it reads on the resolution, “[T]he Texas Senate hereby expresses its dissatisfaction with the United States Congress' inadequate efforts to fully fund the operational security of the Texas-Mexico international border.”
Senate Democrats were angered how their GOP counterparts side-stepped traditional procedure to fast-track the bill without including them. State Senator Jose Menendez of San Antonio called out Senator Bettencourt and the Senate Republicans for blindsiding the Democrats. “”Why didn’t it go through a process where we could debate it in committee and have public testimony on it?” Bettencourt responded, “because of the nature of the crisis and the fact we’re looking at over 100-thousand crossings…the fact that Secretary Nielsen (Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen) says we’ve got a humanitarian and security crisis on the border.”
In a heated exchange, Democratic State Senator John Whitmire, the most tenured member of the Senate, argued with Bettencourt that the bigger crisis was not on the border. “The crisis is a domestic crisis in our urban centers. What you’ve got on the border, would you not agree with me, is a humanitarian (crisis).” Whitmire also questioned the impact such a resolution would have on the President and the US Congress. “What are you telling them they don’t know?” Bettencourt responded, “What’s the problem with recognizing it?” Angered by that Whitmire came back with “the problem is we’re not taking care of the business people sent us here too take care of and I will close saying the only crisis I know that we need to address is the one we’re witnessing right here on the Senate floor today.”
The Republican resolution passed along strict party lines 19-12.
SR 535:
WHEREAS, The United States Congress has the moral and
constitutional responsibility to fully maintain the operational
security of the Texas-Mexico international border; and
WHEREAS, The United States Congress has neglected to fully
fund the maintenance, order, and safety of the Texas-Mexico
international border; and
WHEREAS, An unprotected border facilitates drug smuggling
and human trafficking and opens the door to spillover violence
from criminal cartels and poses a grave threat to homeland
security; and
WHEREAS, On March 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, sent an
urgent request to the United States Congress describing the
border as "a humanitarian and security catastrophe that is
worsening by the day"; and
WHEREAS, DHS is expected to report the interdiction of
100,000 migrants in March 2019, which would be the highest
monthly total in a decade; and
WHEREAS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had
12,000 migrants in custody the last week of March 2019, an
unprecedented number; and
WHEREAS, Secretary Nielsen reports that the volume of
"vulnerable populations" is unsustainable and DHS, CBP, and
Health and Human Services (HHS) facilities are at peak capacity
to shelter unaccompanied alien children (UAC); and
WHEREAS, Due to the unprecedented influx of migrants
overwhelming the capacity at CBP stations and the ongoing crisis,
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Del Rio Sector have
begun releasing detainees into Texas; and
WHEREAS, News reports reveal undocumented women have made
their way into American border towns after being beaten for
disobeying smugglers, impregnated by strangers, coerced into
prostitution, shackled to beds and trees, and – in at least a
handful of cases – bound with duct tape, rope, or handcuffs; and
WHEREAS, 194,000 criminal aliens booked into Texas jails
from 2011-2019 were charged with more than 299,000 criminal
offenses; and
WHEREAS, CBP reports the unprecedented increase in migrant
interdictions is having a detrimental impact on CBP's primary
border security mission and security posture resulting in up to
40 percent or more of CBP personnel working to care for,
transport, and process vulnerable families and children; and
WHEREAS, Transnational criminal organizations and
smugglers are using large groups of families as diversions to
exploit and profit from reduced border enforcement presence; and
WHEREAS, Members of Congress have filed legislation to
designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations for
their undermining of American national security with a
relentless attack on our border while trafficking in human
beings; and
WHEREAS, The President of the United States has declared
the situation along the border a "crisis"; and
WHEREAS, The United States Congress has consistently
delayed meaningful action on border security, forcing Texas to
expend significant resources to keep the international border
with Mexico secure and placing an undue burden on the state's
taxpayers; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Texas Senate hereby expresses its
dissatisfaction with the United States Congress' inadequate
efforts to fully fund the operational security of the
Texas-Mexico international border; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas Senate calls upon the United
States Congress to adopt a budget that fully funds all means
necessary to fully secure the Texas-Mexico international border,
including, but not limited to, deploying personnel, implementing
effective technologies, and erecting barriers where needed; and,
be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas Senate requests the federal
government cease separating families at the border as a means of
deterring refugees, and to humanely process refugee and asylum
seekers; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas Senate declares this crisis at
the Texas-Mexico International Border an emergency; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, The Texas Senate supports the President in his
efforts to move forward with emergency action; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the Texas Senate forward
official copies of this resolution to the President of the United
States, to the President of the U.S. Senate, and to the Speaker of
the U.S. House of Representatives, and to all members of the
Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this
resolution be entered in the Congressional Record.