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The Texas Senate on Thursday established the Department of Homeland Security with the state’s Public Safety Administration, and approved a proposal to protect against security risks, focusing on immigration enforcement, organized crime and protecting state infrastructure.
If passed to the law, Senate Bill 36 would make Texas immigration enforcement efforts a permanent part of the state’s criminal justice system. Passed by the Senate by a 26-4 vote, SB 36 is now moving forward to the state House of Representatives.
For the past four years, Texas lawmakers have plowed over $11 billion into Operation Lone Star, the ongoing border crackdown by Gov. Greg Abbott, who deployed state police and Texas State Guard along the nearly 1,300-mile border with Mexico.
Launched shortly after Joe Biden’s presidency began, OLS was paid to the process of building part of the border wall and deploying Razor wires along the Rio Grande and open facilities, living in the National Guard troops and arresting migrants.
After peaking at the end of 2023, immigration concerns at the border began falling last year after Biden legally allowed him to enter the United States and created a program that has historically reached a minority since President Trump took office and shut down immigrant asylum claims.
But more enforcement is needed, said state Sen. R Flower Mound, who sponsors the bill. He added that the state needs its own Homeland Security Agency to protect its borders, residents and economic engines.
“We’ll find the right balance between providing our security and respecting the role of our local and federal partners,” Parker said.
Some Democrats wondered why states need their country’s security if the Federal Department of Homeland Security is already responsible for protecting the country’s infrastructure and reducing illegal immigration.
“Is the everyday Texan the target of these people, or who is the target of this new Homeland Security Agency?” asked Senator D-San Antonio, José Menenendez.
Parker said centralizing the functioning of the Public Safety Agency is about focusing on one department that helps streamline intelligence, rather than creating more police for Texas residents.
Gov. Dan Patrick has designated SB 36 among his top priorities at the Legislative Council.
“Establishing the Department of Homeland Security within the DPS will allow us to centralize key homeland security activities within the DPS, which will result in better prepared and protected Texas,” Patrick said in a statement after the bill was passed.
According to a financial report on the bill, SB 36 will allow the state to hire 23 full-time employees to a new division that could cost $7 million by August 2027.
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