More than 70 Texas House of Representatives Republicans signed a letter on March 2 asking U.S. congressional leaders to pause immigration, citing a shooting on West Sixth Street where a naturalized U.S. citizen killed three people and injured 13 others earlier this month.
“The time for deliberation has passed,” the letter states. “The American people — and the people of Texas — demand immigration policies that place the safety and welfare of Americans first. Every day that Congress fails to act is another day that puts American lives at risk.”
State legislators asked Congress to fully fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, freeze H-1B visa disbursements and increase enforcement within the country. State Rep. Cole Hefner, the chair of Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs in the Texas House, led the initiative. The attack at Buford’s bar was a “wake-up call,” Hefner, R-Mt. Pleasant wrote in a March 2 Facebook post in relation to the letter.
“Texas has proven we will lead when necessary,” Hefner wrote. “But we cannot rewrite federal immigration law from Austin.”
In the letter, state legislators wrote their requests will require funding to “cross-reference immigration records, law enforcement databases, and intelligence reports to identify individuals who pose a credible threat to American citizens.”
Sarah Cruz, a policy and advocacy strategist for border and immigrant rights with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said the letter is mostly symbolic of some legislators’ demands.
“It’s another example of leadership using a tragedy to scapegoat our immigrant communities in Texas,” Cruz said. “We’ve seen this happen through pushes for legislation that would impact the constitutional rights of communities in Texas.”
Some of the letter’s requests come from prior enforcement initiatives at the federal and state levels. The demand to “freeze all H-1B visa issuances” comes after a year of the President Donald Trump administration’s focus on the program. Gov. Greg Abbott also recently banned public agencies, such as UT, from issuing new H-1B visas, a temporary visa for foreign professionals.
The letter’s request for DHS funding comes amid an ongoing conflict between Trump and Congress. The department has been without funding since Feb. 13.
“DHS is the frontline defense of this nation,” the letter states. “Budgetary obstruction and political gamesmanship that starves DHS of the resources it needs is not a negotiating tactic, it is a national security failure.”
Cruz said she is concerned by the proposed solution for increased surveillance. Texas passed a bill last summer requiring local sheriff’s departments to enter into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything within this letter, within these demands, that acknowledges the fact that we have already had so much enforcement at the federal level, at the state and now being forced at the local level,” Cruz said. “I’m not sure at what point it becomes enough.”
