Texas Republicans propose extreme law to create a Border Protection Unit

• Texas Republicans propose an extreme immigration law.
• They want to create a special Border Protection Unit.
• It would allow citizens to arrest migrants.

The Republicans in Texas are proposing a law creating a Border Protection Unit which would deputize citizens to detain migrants. These citizen agents would also get legal protection for their actions in that regard. The concept is already being referred to as a «death squad».

Republican Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, has said he will seek to pass the law and see it through to the end, in order to «protect the border» and the state of Texas.

Texas Republicans propose extreme immigration law

Supplementary legislation in the Texas Senate will make living in the state without documents a crime. Those found guilty could face up to a year in prison and, if they are repeat offenders, ten years, according to The Intercept.

Undocumented immigrants who also have a criminal record could even face life in prison. The plan seeks to create a sort of vigilante group, leading Republicans to call the new law, the «Border Protection Unit Act».

Democrats are calling the proposed Border Protection Unit a «death squad»

The Border Protection Unit would operate at least until 2030, at which time an extension will be considered. Texas Democrats call the proposed Border Protection Unit a «death squad». The Phelan shares Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s hostility towards immigrants.

He has promoted several initiatives, including Operation Lone Star. «We’re going to introduce a bill… I hope, make national headlines and change the conversation about border security, and we hope to take the battle all the way to the Supreme Court and allow Texas to protect its own border,» Phelan said.

Democrats are against the extreme immigration law

Victoria Neave Criado, Democratic chairwoman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC), warned of the danger of the legislation: “This dangerous, radical, and unconstitutional proposal which empowers border vigilantes to hunt migrants and racially profile Latinos is going to result in the death of innocent people,” Neave Criado said.

The binational organization Instituto Fronterizo Esperanza said it was concerned that the Texas Legislature could pass a border security bill that would delegate a new unit of state agents empowered to arrest, detain and deter migrants crossing the border from Mexico.

The Texas immigration law is very dangerous

According to Catholic News Agency, the Border Protection Unit Act, introduced by Republican state Rep. Matt Schaefer and supported by key leaders in the Republican-majority Texas House of Representatives, would create a specialized border protection police force and would make illegal immigration a state offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to El Diario de Chihuahua, the so-called Border Protection Unit Act is troubling because immigration enforcement is the purview of the federal government and this proposed legislation would usurp that role and create a dangerous confrontation between Texas and the feds, with migrants and border communities likely collateral damage, Instituto Fronterizo Esperanza said in a press release.