Texas Legislature didn’t pass border bills during session. Will new session be different?

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott sat under the blistering South Texas sun last month, razor wire and natural brush at his back, and emphatically declared that no state has done more at protecting the U.S.-Mexico border than the Lone Star State.

At the time, the Legislature was in the final weeks of its biennial legislative session, with several immigration-related proposals making their way through the Capitol.

“Somebody in this country has to step up and hold the line and not allow people to cross into our country illegally,” Abbott said then, according to video of the news conference.

Fast forward a few weeks: Those bills have failed to reach Abbott’s desk. The governor immediately called lawmakers back to Austin for what is likely to be one of multiple special sessions this year. The Senate and House — already at an impasse over property tax relief — are choosing to address Abbott’s directive to increase the penalty for human smuggling in different ways.

And then there’s the outrage directed at the GOP-dominated Capitol. On one hand, some immigration and civil rights activists worry that the proposals would allow Texas to enforce immigration law — which is the responsibility of the federal government.

Meanwhile, conservative activists say the state’s leaders — Abbott, House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — and GOP lawmakers failed to fulfill campaign promises to curb illegal immigration. Some say Operation Lone Star, the multibillion-dollar border security effort using Texas National Guard troops and DPS officers, is a waste of money.

The state has continuously increased the funding for border security. Lawmakers have appropriated $5.3 billion to Operation Lone Star, for the next two-year cycle. That’s up from $4.6 billion in the previous cycle. Migrants are charged with trespassing on private property, mostly in the Eagle Pass-Del Rio region.

Spokespeople for Abbott, Patrick and Phelan did not respond to several requests for comment.

On Tuesday, the House passed Republican Rep. Ryan Guillen’s proposal that increases the penalty for human smuggling and for operating a stash house. The bill was sent to the Senate on a largely party-line vote before the House adjourned for the special session, signaling they had fulfilled their duty.

On Friday morning, the Senate referred Guillen’s bill, along with three of their own, to its border security committee for a Tuesday morning hearing. Two of the Senate’s bills stray away from Abbott’s special session agenda.

Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, makes it a new state crime for unauthorized entry by a migrant from a foreign nation. Senate Bill 8, also by Birdwell, chair of the border security committee, creates the Texas Border Force.

“These proposals, they are not happening in a vacuum. We already see that Texas has already implemented other anti-immigrant, anti-refugee strategies such as Operation Lone Star,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights. “I mean, by comparing migrants to criminals, it takes us back to the Trump era where migrants were seen as a threat to the nation.”

House Bill 20 by GOP Rep. Matt Schaefer of Tyler, created a new policing unit along the border with law enforcement officers and U.S. citizens. The bill also would have allowed Abbott to declare a migrant “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution and invoke the state’s war powers.

Democrats, however, successfully killed the proposal using a legislative tactic ahead of a key deadline.

Abbott has consistently attacked President Joe Biden and the federal government over immigration. But the three-term governor has received criticism for failing to declare a migrant “invasion” and use state personnel to deport undocumented immigrants. It would be an unprecedented step and legal scholars say it’s unconstitutional.

“It’s not just Joe Biden’s fault. It’s Governor Abbott’s fault. It’s the Texas state Legislature’s fault,” said Wade Miller, executive director of Citizens for Renewing America, a conservative think tank.

Miller, who previously served as chief of staff to Texas Rep. Chip Roy, said Operation Lone Star is an enormous hit to taxpayers and has no real solutions.

“Operation Lone Star, in a lot of respects, is only slightly better than taking tens of millions of dollars, pouring gasoline over it and lighting it on fire,” Miller said.

Politicians, nationally and in Texas, have doubled down on the “invasion” rhetoric when discussing illegal immigration. In May, Patrick told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that Biden was “allowing his own country to be invaded.”

That labeling is inaccurate and dangerous, Garcia said. Calling migrants invaders has a long history in white supremacists’ circles. The gunman who shot and killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 posted shortly before the massacre that it was in response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He pleaded guilty in February to federal hate crime and firearm charges.

“If you say there’s an invasion, people will be afraid,” Garcia said. “They are playing with that fear, even though that’s not true.”

On Friday evening, Abbott tweeted about border security and said lawmakers “must do more.”

Texans for Strong Borders, a hard-line immigration advocacy group, replied to the tweet and said, “We need a wider call to get the job done.”

It’s unclear if any of the bills other than smuggling-related ones will come close to reaching Abbott’s desk. Particularly with the intraparty infighting going on among Patrick, Phelan and Abbott over property taxes.

At a news conference at the Texas Public Policy Foundation on Tuesday, Patrick heavily criticized the lower-chamber for killing a lot of his bills that dealt with immigration. He also knocked the House for failing to find the money to pay for Guillen’s proposal that would create the new border policing unit.

“I thought, ‘You want us to hire 1,000 people, but you didn’t put any money in the bill,’ Patrick said. “These are the things that kind of puzzled me from the session.”