Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said that if migrants cross the border and have felony convictions, illegal entry would become a new felony for which they would pay life imprisonment.
A new GOP bill is premised on the idea that convicted felons caught crossing illegally into Texas would face life in prison.
Dan Patrick, Texas lieutenant governor, spoke about the attempted crackdown at the Texas border after a group of at least 1,000 migrants were seen running across the Paso del Norte Bridge in El Paso on Sunday.
“We introduced a bill on Friday, Senate Bill 2424, to show those who come here illegally that we mean business in Texas,” Patrick explained.
“If you come here and you have a felony conviction, you could face life in prison. This is a brand new felony. And if you cross illegally for any reason, up to a year in jail, the second time up to two years,” he added.
If passed, SB 2424 legislation would make illegal crossing in Texas a “new state crime,” thus authorizing authorities to “arrest and prosecute all persons who cross the border illegally anywhere in Texas,” according to Patrick’s statement.
“A word to those criminals who continue to cross the border: we will put them in jail for life,” Patrick said.
This warning came after a large group of mostly Venezuelan migrants were not allowed to breach an entry point at the U.S.-Mexico border, Fox News reported.
The lieutenant governor said he is not surprised that Texas acted immediately to respond to the crossing, but added that the dangerous situation shows what can happen as long as President Joe Biden “continues to leave this border wide open and invite people to come to the United States.”
“Imagine if those thousands had not stopped, there could have been bloodshed at the border,” he said.
“How would the Mexican troops have responded? How would the people running through the barbed wire have responded? How would our troops have responded? And this is what could happen as long as Joe Biden continues to leave this border wide open and invite people to come to the United States.”
Patrick also called on Mexico to step up and close its own southern border.
“Their border is much smaller than our 1,900-mile border,” he alleged. “They could prevent these people from even entering Mexico. That’s what Mexico could really do to help.”
The Texas lieutenant governor said that under Democratic rule, the United States is experiencing disasters everywhere that have forced the state’s hand.
“When you send fentanyl across the border, you are taking the lives of Americans, many, the leading cause of death among young people,” he said.
Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in response to the continued trafficking of migrants and deadly drugs into the United States facilitated by these criminal organizations.
The Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act would require the State Department to designate the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation as FTOs.
It would also require the government agency to issue a report on those cartels and any additional cartels that meet the criteria for such designation.