Texas lawmakers have proposed enabling private residents to confront and arrest people they suspect might be in this country illegally. It could be one of the worst ideas offered by a legislature that already is known for offering questionable bills.
House Bill 20, authored by Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, has the endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials; House Speaker Dade Phelan announced it was a priority measure even before this legislative session began in January. It would create a Texas Border Protection Unit authorized to deputize private Texas residents to assist in border patrols and arrest conduct arrests.
Under the bill, individuals’ authority to make arrests would have to be “specifically authorized” by the governor himself — suggesting that this might just be a perk, a de factor migrant hunting permit, to give Abbott’s buddies and political supporters. The Border Protection Unit then would provide training before letting the new deputies start rounding up suspected illegal immigrants.
The proposal makes little sense on several levels. For starters, despite the large package of border and immigration bills on which this legislature is wasting its time and effort, they remain federal issues. If the state itself can’t enforce immigration law, it certainly can’t deputize private citizens to do so either.
More importantly, such an enforcement operation would put many lives in danger. Demonization of immigrants already has led to violent attacks nationwide, many of them fatal, against people who look Hispanic, Asian and Middle Eastern. It’s certainly likely that many people who already want to rid the country of minorities would love to get a badge and permission to confront them.
Moreover, it’s doubtful that any state training could prepare private residents for the unique challenges of border enforcement. Regardless of their immigration status, everyone encountered on the border is a person whose safety and rights must be respected and assured, even by those who might think they are invaders who must be stopped. It’s not an easy task — there’s a reason that even federal military troops can’t perform arrests but only provide support services to Border Patrol and other Homeland Security personnel.
The greatest risk, however, would be to the unit’s volunteers themselves. The unit’s members could easily encounter not an innocent migrant but a smuggler allied with one of the Mexican cartels that have more resources, better armament, and less regard for human life, than even Mexico’s military.
The initial demonization of immigrants during the 1990s inspired the creation of “citizen militias” who came to the border to stop the supposed invasion of illegal crossers. Those groups disappeared quickly after their members saw the challenges, and risks, associated with border enforcement.
Chances are that anyone who joins a state border unit might make the same discovery. however, HB 20 would only inspire some people to come to the border and find out the hard way, endangering themselves and others in the process.
We trust the majority of state lawmakers see the folly of such a bill and vote it down.
