Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an immigration bill into law on Monday, allowing the American state to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the southern border.
Starting from March 2024, the Senate Bill, SB4, will make it a criminal offence to enter Texas illegally from a foreign country. The move would allow state law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants, with repeat offenders facing up to 20 years in prison.
The goal of Senate Bill 4 is to stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas. The bill provides a mechanism to order an illegal immigrant to return to the foreign nation from which they entered.
Abbott cited the surge of illegal immigration at the southern US border with Mexico, stressing that Texas handled most of the influx.
“Two years ago, there was an all-time record number of illegal immigrants apprehended — more than 2.3 million. That’s larger than the size of Houston, Texas. Then, this last year, there were more than 2.4 million people apprehended crossing the border illegally.”
Altogether, since Joe Biden has been president, when you count those apprehended and the known got-aways, it adds up to about 8 million people crossing the border illegally.
The governor also approved $1.54 billion in state aid to build more border walls and fences and increase law enforcement presence along the border.
Abbott reported that Texas had already finished more than 16 miles (25.7 kilometres) of border wall, with more than 33 miles (53 kilometres) currently under construction. The state also erected more than 110 miles (177 kilometres) of barbed wire fence on the border with Mexico.
He also signed a new law aimed at combating human smuggling and illegal immigrant stashes. The measure carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants across the border, as well as a minimum sentence of up to five years for running a stash house.
“Texas [is] doing its part to step up and trying to secure a border made wide open by Joe Biden. Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.”
