Texas seeks to declare irregular immigration a felony
DeSantis is not alone in his crusade against irregular immigration. His colleague from Texas, Greg Abbott, not only opened the doors of his state to send migrants from there to Democratic states, but his own government has financed initiatives of the same type.
In addition, Abbott is also preparing legislation to make illegal entry a “felony” and allow the expulsion of migrants.
On May 8, at a press conference in Austin, the governor of Texas said that by the end of the month he wants to pass a new state law to make the entry of immigrants a felony. A norm, he pointed out, that grants the authorities the power to “detain these people in jail for a serious crime or, as an alternative, return them to Mexico.”
He also declared that he will also consider penalizing with a minimum of 10 years in prison those people who help undocumented migrants “hide.”
Abbott, a Republican who has strongly criticized Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision to end the Title 42 policy on Thursday, reported that members of the Texas Border Tactical Force, a newly trained National Guard unit, were boarding Black Hawk helicopters for deployment.
“They will be deployed to hot spots along the border to intercept, repel and turn away immigrants trying to enter Texas illegally,” the governor said at a news conference.
A similar tactic was used successfully in El Paso in December, he added. In the past two days, he said, the National Guard has identified and contained an increase in crossings in Brownsville, the same city where a driver struck a group of migrants on Sunday.
The National Guard’s elite team will target any such hikes that occur, identifying crossing points and closing them down, he said. They will have access to planes, ships, night vision equipment and riot gear.