The Texas House of Representatives passed three bills Thursday that are intended to help secure the southern border. The one known as House Bill 4 is the most controversial.

One bill provides $1.5B for border barrier construction. The second bill increases sentences for human trafficking. The third bill, HB 4, allows local police to arrest and deport illegal immigrants. As logical as HB 4 sounds, it should be noted that past attempts to allow local law enforcement to deport illegal aliens have failed. Federal court rulings have gone against the right of Texas to do what is a federal responsibility. Immigration is a federal responsibility. The Biden administration refuses to do its job.

The bill now goes to the state Senate. Republicans are in the majority there and they are expected to approve the legislation. “It is a humane, logical and efficient approach,” state Rep. David Spille from Fort Worth said of the bill. He added, “There is nothing unfair about ordering someone back from where they came if they arrived here illegally.”

That would be true in a perfect world but that is not our world. In Biden’s America, the administration continues to deny that the border is open and the humanitarian and national security crises are out of control. The administration has turned a blind eye to the southern border for more than three years. Now that it is a presidential election year and Biden is running for re-election, look for a newly-found concern about border security from Team Biden.

In September, the number of border apprehensions of illegal immigrants hit an all-time high. The total number of illegal crossings recorded included a historically high number of people who appear on the terror watch list. The Biden border crisis is a national security crisis. Intelligence agencies are warning about the strong possibility of nefarious actors attempting to cross the border. The number of gotaways is also historically high and they are not vetted at all. This administration has no idea who is in our country.

Tensions were high in the Texas House.

The chamber came to standstill for almost three hours after Democratic Rep. Armando Walle of Houston confronted Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine. That happened moments after the House approved a motion brought by Harris to limit the number of amendments that the chamber could vote on.

The tense floor debate recalled past House fights over bills banning sanctuary cities, banning abortions at six weeks and supporting stricter voting laws. The chamber gaveled in at 10 a.m. Wednesday and didn’t gavel out until after 4 a.m. Thursday.

A majority of the debate focused on House Bill 4, written by Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro.

Spiller’s bill would make illegal entry into Texas by a migrant a state crime punishable by six months in jail. Repeat offenses would be a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. The bill also would allow state law enforcement officers to order migrants to return to the foreign country from which they entered the state.

Democrats argued against the bill and raised concerns that it is unconstitutional.

Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, D-Dallas, who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the proposal would undercut the U.S. Constitution so that the state could “flex its muscle with the power that it does not have.”

The bill, Democrats argued, goes against the federal government’s authority in enforcing immigration laws. Some also argued that having state law enforcement officers order migrants back to Mexico would violate due process rights.

Democrats also tried to stop the other two bills.

The Texas Legislature is in a 30-day special session. Governor Abbott has requested several border security bills. Abbott says that Texas must do what Biden will not do. The governor has labeled the Biden border crisis an invasion. The denial of an open border is a team effort by the Biden administration. It is intentional and it puts us all at risk.

I’ll just leave this here.

Democrats want you to believe the border is "secure."

They are lying.pic.twitter.com/XHPh0DD5NB

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2023