A Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives yelled at colleagues as the legislative body passed a package of three border security bills early Thursday.
The Texas House of Representatives passed bills that allow police officers to apprehend and remove illegal immigrants by making illegal entry from Mexico into Texas a state crime, funded construction of additional border barriers to prevent illegal entry and increased mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of human smuggling, the Texas Tribune reported.
Tempers flared after Republican State Rep. Cody Harris sought to limit debate and amendments on the bills.
“It hurts us to our f**king core,” Democratic State Rep. Armando Lucio Walle told Harris in a confrontation during a break, according to a video posted on social media by Democratic State Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos. “And you don’t understand that, you don’t live in our skin. And that’s what pisses me off.”
“What cowards we have on the other side of the aisle. They can’t even allow full and fair debate over their trash bills,” Ramos tweeted.
Warning: The video below contains language.
Over 2.45 million illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023, according to data released by United States Customs and Border Protection, following 2,378,944 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,734,686 in fiscal year 2021. Fox News reported another 600,000 migrants evaded CBP in fiscal year 2022.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has been in a legal battle with the Biden administration over the barriers erected by state agencies to reduce or deter illegal immigration. Videos posted on social media show Border Patrol agents cutting the barriers and allowing the illegal immigrants into Texas.
Texas sued the Biden administration Tuesday over the incidents where Border Patrol agents cut barbed wire barriers the state erected on the border with Mexico to allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States.
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