Texas Republican Rep. Matt Schaefer has introduced a controversial bill that would extend the legal framework around border enforcement beyond federal officials alone.
The proposed legislation, which would allow the Southern state to have its own state border-protection unit, has been bashed by critics who fear that it will lead to vigilante justice against migrants.
Schaefer introduced the bill—House Bill (HB) 20—to the Texas House State Affairs Committee last week. He said that Texans are in "imminent danger" due to the skyrocketing number of fentanyl trafficking and poisoning deaths in the state.
The bill, which invokes clauses in the U.S. and Texas constitutions related to "invasions", would allow Texas to create its own "Border Protection Unit." This would be formed by officers empowered to "arrest, detain, and deter individuals crossing the border illegally including with the use of non-deadly force." That would include repelling and returning migrants back to Mexico when "observed actually crossing the Texas-Mexico border unlawfully."
The creation of this special border unit relies on the declaration of an invasion under Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution. This says that no state can "keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace" without the consent of Congress, "unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay."
Schaefer has justified the bill with the threat "violent, transnational criminal cartels" pose on "the lives of Texans and Americans." According to Schaefer, the same criminal cartels who traffic fentanyl in the U.S. profit greatly from illegal immigration, which they also use to keep border guards busy and distracted from drug-trafficking detection.
Under HB 20, the border-protection unit will be in place until December 30, 2030, when it will expire unless continued by the Legislature.
The special unit would be housed within the Texas Department of Public Safety and would be run by a gubernatorial appointee. According to what Schaefer wrote in a tweet, "the Texas Border Protection Unit will be an organization of professional men and women hired/trained under the authority of the Dept of Public Safety to protect Texans. Many will be licensed peace officers, others trained and specifically authorized by the Governor to make lawful arrests. Exactly as the Nat'l Guard & DPS operate now under Operation Lone Star."
However, critics of the bill have raised fears that the legislation might empower a small group of militia-style officers to act with immunity from civil or criminal liability, and even recruit private citizens.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) called the bill an "extreme vigilante death squads policy." MALC chair and state Rep. Victoria Neave wrote in a statement that the proposed legislation is a "dangerous, radical, unconstitutional proposal which empowers border vigilantes to hunt migrants and racially profile Latinos [that] is going to result in the death of innocent people."
State House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, placed the proposed legislation among his legislative priorities centered on border security, which he presented on Friday.
Newsweek has emailed Rep. Schaefer and Rep. Neave for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
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