2024 Border Legislation

[Ken]

Ken,

This is a state matter not a federal matter. State law applies. States have far more leeway to decide their own laws than the federal government does.

Federal immigration laws are essentially irrelevant. Texas could pass a law saying illegal aliens are trespassing, including ones who have not yet formally been granted asylum. The fact they say a few magic words does not magically make them legal aliens.

Most notably, Texas’s law simply says entering other than at a legal port of entry is a crime. How is this a problem? Why can’t they just enter at a legal port of entry?

And then what? Even if they can prove they broke Texas law, Texas prisons are already overcrowded. What is Texas going to do next? Are they going to burden local counties, local courts, and local prosecutors with the task of detaining these people in jails that don't exist and then holding expensive jury trials to convict them? And then hold them indefinitely? Life sentences for trespass? Do you know what it costs to hold a prisoner for even a year? It costs far more to imprison someone than educate someone because you need guards 24/7/365 plus you need to feed them and provide medical care.

Remember, Mexico isn't going to take them. 95% are not Mexican. What is Texas going to do with them? Burn up their state budget housing migrants in prison?

Like I said, they haven't thought this through. Which is typical of Texas.

[Josh]

OK, Ken.

[temporal1]

Now that voters in blue cities+state understand that Texas and other border states are THEIR borders, there may be significant change in border policies. All 50 states should empathize with the border states, their problems are U.S. problems.

In the past, all 50 states have volunarily+generously helped with (East Coast) disasters. Border states should enjoy similar support.

i’m not sure why it took Texas Gov Abbott sending illegals to blue cities to get the message across.
but, his actions brought awareness.

i’m not sure what’s ahead. i’m sorry it took such drastic measures to wake people up.

there may be significant changes.
it’s been so unfair for the border states to be so overburdened with this, all these decades.

Chicago and NYC voters need to understand, it’s not always “all about them.” 50 states, not 1 or 2.

Chicago / “Brighton Park residents protest, march Friday against plans for migrant camp”
https://abc7chicago.com/migrants-chicag ... /14038630/

[temporal1]

Gov Abbott is amazing. In his trusty wheelchair. God bless him.

Who can honestly say they can imagine being governor of such a state so burdened as his, all these years?
What a heavy burden.

[Ken]

OK, Ken.

What am I wrong about? How is Texas actually going to enforce this new law if Mexico isn't going to take these immigrants off their hands? Is it just going to be "catch and release"? Remember, Texas's jails and prisons are already overcrowded and understaffed. They going to release large numbers of domestic criminals to make way for all the immigrants they plan to arrest and imprison? https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... e-inmates/

[Ernie]

John Kirby in his White House Press Conference today says Biden cannot do more at the border until Congress authorizes more funding for law enforcement and courts.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... n-kirby-6/

I understand that some people think this authorization and funding is not needed.

Can someone explain why or why not you believe one or the other? from a legislative or an executive point of view?

[Ken]

Here is a recent Washington Post article in which the administration says they will need to release thousands of detainees without additional funding. Many detainees in the queue for deportation are being held in private detention facilities and without extra funding they will have to shut them down and release the detainees that they are currently holding.

Also they don't have enough immigration judges which are necessary BOTH for deportations, and to hear asylum claims. You can't deport someone without a hearing and a deportation order from an immigration court.

https://wapo.st/3TQ1UoZ

After border bill failure, ICE considers mass releases to close budget gap

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of a Senate border bill that would have erased a $700 million budget shortfall, according to four officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

The bipartisan border bill that Republican lawmakers opposed last week would have provided $6 billion in supplemental funding for ICE enforcement operations. The bill’s demise has led ICE officials to begin circulating an internal proposal to save money by releasing thousands of detainees and cutting detention levels from 38,000 beds to 22,000 — the opposite of the enforcement increases Republicans say they want.

The budget crunch and the proposal also present a difficult scenario for the Biden administration heading into the spring, when illegal crossings at the southern border are expected to spike again. On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his border record, and immigration remains President Biden’s worst-rated issue in polls.

Former president Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican front-runner in the presidential campaign, boasted of his role in influencing lawmakers to block the border bill, which he said would have benefited Biden politically.

DHS could try to cover the funding gap at ICE by reprogramming money from the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration or other agencies within the department. But such moves are contentious, and ICE officials say the $700 million deficit is the largest projected shortfall the agency has faced in recent memory.

Some of the proposed cost savings would occur as deportations reduce ICE detention levels, but much of it would have to happen through the mass release of detainees, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Erin Heeter, a DHS spokesperson, said Congress has “chronically underfunded” the department’s “vital missions on the southwest border.”

“Most recently, Congress rejected the bipartisan national security bill out of hand, which will put at risk DHS’s current removal operations,” Heeter said in a statement. “A reduction in ICE operations would significantly harm border security, national security, and public safety.”