DALLAS — It’s been an active week for news and developments surrounding the Texas-Mexico border.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration, claiming that the Border Patrol illegally destroyed state property when its agents cut through concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande to “assist” migrants to “illegally cross” the border.
The concertina wire is part of Governor Greg Abbott's efforts to stem illegal immigration at the border. Earlier this year in Eagle Pass, a state trooper claimed the state’s concertina wire had injured people, including women and young children.
Federal courts have previously ruled that the federal government has sole jurisdiction over immigration matters and often sides with them in lawsuits from Texas. But in a surprise move earlier this month, the Biden administration pressed forward with border wall plans in Texas. President Biden previously stated barriers don’t work, but his administration said it will waive environmental laws to build them quickly.
His administration gave notice that it intended to waive 26 laws and regulations to “take immediate action” to build a few miles of new barrier, specifically, in Starr County.
Also on Tuesday, House Speaker Dade Phelan (R - Beaumont) and Representative Jeff Leach (R - Plano) toured Eagle Pass by air, land and river.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Phelan said "more help" to the border is "coming soon."
Following suit, Leach posted his support for "sound policies" that protect the border.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, Texas House Representatives debated, and passed, several border-related bills. Gov. Abbott added the border topic to the special session agenda after calls from lawmakers.
First approved was Senate Bill 4. It calls for increasing criminal penalties for those who smuggle people into the states illegally. Initial approval was given to the bill. It will need one more additional vote in the House before going back to the Senate.
House Bill 6 was also debated and given initial approval. HB6 would allocate $1.5 billion for continued construction of the border wall along parts of the Texas-Mexico border.
House lawmakers stayed at the Capitol until 4 a.m. debating, and ultimately passing, House Bill 4. The bill, which would make illegal border crossings a state crime and give state cops much broader authority, had 46 amendments submitted.
Prior to the HB4 debate, Representative Cody Harris (R-Palestine) filed a motion to keep any more amendments on the bill from being filed and debated. This led to a heated exchange on the House floor between Harris and Representative Armando Walle (D-Houston), who told Harris he didn’t “understand the [expletive]” Harris does to “our community.” The motion passed.
Addressing border security was put on Gov. Abbott’s special session agenda after multiple calls from state lawmakers. Representative Eddie Morales (D-Eagle Pass) wrote a letter to Gov. Abbott with his plans for mitigating problems at the border.
Morales wants lawmakers to not only think about prevention of illegal crossing, but also a way that both countries can benefit from those who want to come to Texas and work. With his “Texas Secure Our Border Migrant Processing Plan,” Morales wants the state to charge every migrant $2,000 for a “migrant processing fee.” In return, migrants would be allowed to work within the state at jobs, pending proof of an employment sponsor. They must have no criminal history and must come through Texas land ports, not illegally through the river.
Additionally on Wednesday, State Senator, U.S Senate candidate, and immigration lawyer Roland Gutierrez unveiled a federal immigration plan he hopes to introduce should he be elected for U.S Senate. He is currently running to replace Sen. Ted Cruz.
Gutierrez has been critical of a border wall. In an exclusive interview with WFAA, Gutierrez shared his “five-point plan.” It includes “a pathway to normalcy for undocumented workers, justice for Dreamers (DACA), a new work program for arriving migrants, fixing and streamlining the ‘alphabet soup’ of visas, and ending human trafficking and stopping drug cartels.”
Gutierrez said the United States needs to reconfigure immigration policy by overhauling visa programs.
“This is not an open borders plan,” Gutierrez said. “People will be background checked, they will be processed through out state department, through Customs Border Patrol, through United Citizen Immigration Service.”
Gutierrez supports a pathway to residency for the millions of people who have long been in the country illegally. He said millions of migrants are “hungry” for the millions of jobs “Americans don’t want to work.”
“We can create a system that works, not just to blow up our U.S. economy in a right way, but also to sustain our social security,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t need money for social security. We need employees, and that’s what this would do.”
He said he favored a pathway to residency and an even earlier pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers,” or young people who were brought to the country illegally as children.
“[Dreamers] are here through no fault of their own. They have never seen their foreign country since they were infants. Many of them don’t even speak Spanish, or the language from the country they’re from,” Gutierrez said. “We need to give them citizenship because we should. It’s the right thing to do.”
When it comes to border security, Gutierrez advocated for a tougher approach to cartels, which he said profit from illegal immigration. He said the United States should have frank conversations with Mexico about the cartel problem, making note of when the U.S sent special forces to Colombia in the 1980s.
“We went in with the D.E.A and we took out the cartels in Columbia. We can do the same thing with our largest trading partner, and we must,” Gutierrez said. “[Cartels] are affecting trade, they’re certainly raping women and children, they are very recently killing Americans.”
Gutierrez went on to say there also needs to be an understanding of where cartels are getting their guns from. He said half of the AR-15s sold every year, about two million, end up in the hands of cartels. He said discussions between the U.S and Mexico are necessary to figure out how this issue interplays, and what the U.S’s role will be in going after cartels that are hurting the American people and economy.
Gutierrez said, should he not be elected to U.S. Senate, he will talk about solving immigration for as long as he’s in public service. He said he anticipates what critics will say but believes bi-partisanship can be found in his plan.
“This is not an open borders plan,” Gutierrez said. “People will be background checked, they will be processed through out state department, through Customs Border Patrol, through United Citizen Immigration Service.”
Gutierrez’s federal immigration plan can be read here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently released Fiscal Year 2023 data that showed an all-time high for yearly migrant encounters along the Southwest border. That includes the Del Rio Sector, of which Eagle Pass is part.
And in September, there were 269,735 migrants encountered on the Southwest border. That’s the most ever recorded in a single month by CBP, according to CBP data.
There were 45,688 migrants who crossed into the Del Rio Sector in September. Most were Venezuelans and most crossed into Eagle Pass, agency data shows.
Nearly 400,000 migrants were encountered in the Del Rio Sector in Fiscal Year 2023.