The special legislative session, at the state capitol, is focused on two main issues. And now that the Senate has passed a school voucher plan, attention has turned to border security.
Earlier this week, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Stephen McGraw spoke with lawmakers about what's happening along the border with Mexico. They talked about what laws are already in place, and who has been enforcing those. Colonel McGraw said he thinks the problem starts with the idea that no one is really enforcing them, since that responsibility falls to the Federal government.
“It's like anything else,” McGraw said. “You can say you're going to use different statutes, and you can say you're now going to deport, but if you don't do that, they'll figure it out.”
McGraw said the Biden administration supports the practice of “catch-and-release,” where migrants are released into the community to wait for a hearing in immigration court.
“They’re being released,” McGraw said. “Catch and release. They will come. It’s the Golden Ticket. And as they come, it’s a tremendous impact on our local governments.”
(Read more on Biden Administration’s immigration policy here.)
The issue of immigration is typically governed by the federal government, with border enforcement handled by agents under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella.
That’s why lawmakers will be considering bills that make it a state crime to enter Texas illegally, so that agents with Operation Lone Star can then enforce that law, and deport migrants, without having to go through federal agencies to do it.
Legal experts said passing a law like that would be a mistake, however, and would likely land both sides in court over the issue.
However it’s accomplished, Director McGraw said he would welcome any solution to help lock the border with Mexico down, and slow the surge of drugs, weapons and people that cartels are sneaking across now.
“The consequences of an unsecured border are not just what happens on the border,” McGraw said. ‘It’s a challenge for law enforcement. We play by the rules. They don’t.”
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