If you have 60 seconds on Monday to call a legislative office, please call your state representative and urge them to remove the unregulated militia provisions from HB 20 when it comes to the House floor on Tuesday; urge them to oppose the bill if those provisions are not removed. Every member of the House needs as many calls as possible.
Find your representative’s toll-free number
If you are in Austin and can come to the Capitol on Monday to visit legislative offices, please email bobby@texasimpact.org.
On Tuesday, the House will consider the border militarization bills HB 20, HB 7, and HB 800. These bills are on the “Major State” calendar, meaning they are high priorities for the leadership. They also are among the most concerning bills of the session.
HB 20 would establish an unregulated militia, controlled by the Governor, to “arrest, apprehend, or detain persons crossing the Texas-Mexico border unlawfully, and deter persons attempting to cross the border unlawfully, including with the use of non-deadly crowd control measures.”
The bills are coming to the floor in a week when national and global media will be focused on the Texas-Mexico border as pandemic-era asylum protocols end. The federal government has announced the deployment of 1,500 active troops to the border to help with “administrative tasks” associated with the expected influx of asylum seekers, and the Biden administration is putting in place a series of new policies designed to deter and prevent asylum seekers from making legitimate claims as provided for under international law.
Fabi is blogging about the situation, including posting urgent calls for assistance from our border partners. If you or others from your congregation can get to the border this week or next weekend, please plan to do so. Reach out to engagement@texasimpact.org or cameron@fellowshipsouthwest.org, or go here to sign up for a shift with our Baptist partners Fellowship Southwest.
Other Texas Impact staff will be on the ground in Brownsville through May 17, and we will be filming interviews and documentary footage. If you or someone from your organization is engaged in humanitarian or legal direct service and would like to participate in a brief interview, please email bobby@texasimpact.org to schedule a time.
It’s not an accident that HB 20 and the other border militarization bills are coming to the House floor the same week that asylum claims are surging. Anti-immigrant rhetoric in Texas and across the country already is being stoked with video of migrants camping in the streets of border towns.
The teachings of our faith traditions, the wisdom of our ancestors, and our own lived experiences tell us this is not the way. Please do what you can to help legislators avoid making a mistake we all will regret deeply.
Love,
Bee