Texas Senate passed SB 11, attempting to make illegal immigration state crime
Bill would let state police arrest migrants
The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would give the state authority to arrest migrants at the US border. It's something only the federal government can currently do. FOX 26's Damali Keith spoke with a Houston group that hopes Senate Bill 11 will not pass the House.
HOUSTON - The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would give the state authority to enforce immigration. It’s something only the federal government can currently do.
What’s being referred to as the Border Bill, Senate Bill 11 passed the Texas Senate on Thursday. It would allow state troopers to arrest migrants who enter Texas illegally.
"That does not help our country," says the President of Greater Houston LULAC, League of Latin American Citizens, Dr. Sergio Lira who does not want SB 11 to pass into law. It would make it a state crime for immigrants to illegally come into Texas.
"We already incarcerate 25% of the world’s population. Why are we going to consider incarcerating more poor Latino immigrants? As we know our jails are mostly filled with poor African Americans and Latinos. The ones who get affected the most are poor people, poor immigrant people desperate to come to this country, asylum seekers," says Dr. Lira.
"This is not the first time a state has tried to jump into enforcing immigration," explains FOX 26 Legal Analyst Chris Tritico who says typically once a state passes an immigration law like this the United States government files a lawsuit to stop it.
"The government files in federal court saying the United States is the sole authority with the power to enforce immigration laws and ask the federal court to strike the state law down and the state law has been stricken down as unconstitutional because the states do not have the authority under the law to enforce immigration law," Tritico explains.
"So this is just political theater," Lira adds.
If Texas does somehow get SB 11 passed, allowing state officers to arrest illegal immigrants, some predict that will overwhelm the legal system.
"We’ll have to build, multiple, multiple, multiple state jails to hold these prisoners," says Tritico.
"If they claim 6,000 cross daily. Can you imagine how fast those little jails will be filled?" Lira asked
"That cost coupled with the extra law enforcement officers, the extra judges, the extra bailiffs, the extra jailers. I don’t think the cost of enforcing this law has been adequately thought about," Tritico says.
"Let’s not exploit the poor people. Focus on finding solutions. Incarcerating them is not the answer," Lira adds, and he says he also worries about racial profiling if SB-11 passes.
Lt. Gov Dan Patrick released a statement saying in part, "Texas must take matters into our own hands because the crisis on our southern border, perpetuated by the Biden Administration, continues to rage." Lt. Gov. Patrick also says, "This is the third time the Texas Senate has passed this critical legislation. The Senate is committed to securing the southern border and will pass this bill over and over again until it passes the Texas House, where it has died previously."