The five-member panel heard bills Tuesday that would increase penalties for human smuggling and make unauthorized entry a state crime.
A Texas Senate committee quickly advanced controversial legislation to expand state-based immigration enforcement measures on Tuesday, wasting no time on the second day of a special legislative session where Gov. Greg Abbott deemedby state Sen. Bill Flores, R-Pleasanton, which would increase penalties for human smugglers and operators of stash houses. The bill makes human smuggling a third-degree felony that carries with it a 10-year minimum sentence.
However, SB 4 does allow the smuggling penalty to be reduced if a person can show the migrant being transported was a relative through the third degree of “Mandatory minimums are very ineffective at deterring crime, they create more problems than they solve,” said Lauren Johnson, a policy and advocacy strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “It’s important for judges to maintain judicial discretion and I think taking it away makes things more dangerous.”
“It is carefully tailored to avoid intruding on federal immigration enforcement authority while providing law enforcement with an important new tool to deter improper or unlawful entry into Texas,” he said. Roberto Lopez, an advocacy manager with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the legislation could cripple a migrant’s ability to apply for asylum, which is legal under federal and international law. Although a person arrested and charged under the proposed measure would eventually be transferred to federal custody to make their asylum claim, a conviction could affect their chances of being granted the protection.
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