House Republicans Advance Racist Border Bills... Again

It won't be much longer before the Texas GOP runs out of marginalized groups to target.

I’ve lost track of how many times this year Republicans in the legislature have thrown billions of dollars at the border or pushed for a “Show Me Your Papers” bill. We’re on the fourth special session, so it’s all beginning to run together. They did it again today.

Listen to Representative Gene Wu call out Republican’s excessive spending spree:

How much money has gone to Abbott’s stunts at the border so far? More than $10 billion. The total number over the last several sessions is $11.5(ish) billion. Today they greenlit another $1.5 billion.

The GOP continues to throw all of our money at the border and it hasn’t done anything except give them political clout. It doesn’t “secure our border.” This money won’t stop mass migration. We might has well be flushing it down the toilet.

Representative Wu’s speech perfectly exemplifies how this money could have been spent to help Texans, to save closing hostiptals, something other than throwing it away. Republicans are reactionatry, they see a problem and they react. They don’t make decisions based on data or fact, instead they throw money at their fears. It’s a terrible way to govern.

SB3 is an appropriation bill and a million lawsuits won’t be able to stop this colossal waste of money, which happens to include $40 million for the Colony Ridge conspiracy. SB4 is an entirely different ball game.

SB4 is so unconstitutional, it may never be enacted.

Depending on how long you’ve been following the Texas legislature, you may or may not already know that a vast majority of the culture war bills get blocked by the court and never get enacted. It happens often, but Republicans still push the most dispicable and unconstitutional laws. SB4 is one of those bills, we just need to hope it’s blocked in the courts.

SB4 will give Texas Law Enforcement Officers the power to deport undocumented immigrants without due proccess or the fedeeral government’s involvement. Cheap political points the Texas Republicans. Officers and state agencies would be permitted to transport them to ports of entry to make sure they comply. If migrants refused to comply with an order to return, they could be charged with a second degree felony and face up to 20 years in prison.

Basically, any Barny Fife can decide drive a person they deem undocumented to the international border and demand they go back into Mexico (even if they are not from Mexico. It the person doesn’t walk across the bridge, they are arrested and sent to prison for up to twenty years.

The constitution of the United States of America lays out that the job of the Federal Government is to deal with international treaties, with our borders, and with the issues of citizenship. SB4 crosses a major line.

“A person who is an alien commits an offense if the person…is at any time found in this state after the person has been denied admission to or excluded, deported, or removed from the United States.” - SB4

This bill will even remove people who have been here for decades, living lawfully, and paying taxes.

Cruelty, it’s the point. In addition, in SB4 “alien” is defined as someone who isn’t a citizen or a lawful permanent resident. So someone who was previously denied a visa, but now has a valid Visa (say tourism or marriage) is STILL committing an offense despite being lawfully in the country.

This law will be the case of multiple lawsuits. The Conservative SCOTUS is the biggest threat. If the law is pushed all the way up to the highest court, there’s a risk of them overturning the 2010 SCOTUS decision Arizona vs. U.S. This was their goal all along, as this case was discussed all througout the debate of SB4.

Democrats tried to soften the bill, but Republicans voted against every single amendment they offered.

Six hours into the debate in the second reading of SB4, Republicans introduced a motion to stop all debate and vote on the bill. Democrats had over 50 amendments but were only through 14. I turned off the video at that point, but they immidiately took the bill to the third reading. Democrats tried to push another 10 amendments in during the third reading, but those all failed, too.

(If you’ve been watching my social media for clips, I’ll get the clips from the third reading posted tomorrow.)

SB4 passed, straight down party lines. Every single Republican voted for it, every single Democrat voted against it. When they tell you who they are, you need to listen. We have one year until the 2024 election. A lot of non-voters need to become voters, before the GOP’s authoritarian laws wind up on their door step.

Here’s a statement about SB4 from Armondo Walle:

The Senate will pass SB4, now we just hope the lawsuits can stop it.

Some good news.

A bunch of candidates have filed this week. Tomorrow I’ll give you an update of all of the campaigns that have officially launched. Stay tuned.

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