Today, the Texas House passed two major border security bills that are essential to reining in the border crisis, protecting Texas communities, and asserting Texas sovereignty. Senate Bill 3 has been amended and will return to the Senate. Senate Bill 4 will head to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk.

“We commend Rep. Jetton and Sen. Huffman, Rep. Spiller and Sen. Perry, as well as Senate and House leadership, for passing transformative bills that will help Texas continue to do what’s right in the face of a derelict federal government: Protect its border and its citizens,” said TPPF’s CEO Greg Sindelar.

Senate Bill 3 provides additional funding for border barrier infrastructure as well as for public safety in the Colony Ridge development in Liberty County.

Senate Bill 4 creates new state offenses for entering or re-entering the state illegally from a foreign country and for refusing to comply with an order to return to the foreign countryan illegal alien comes from. SB 4 allows judges to order an illegal alien to return to the country from which they entered illegally, in lieu of prosecution, or mandates that an order be included in the judgement that the illegal alien return to the foreign country they illegally entered from after completing the term of their imprisonment.

“By passing Senate Bill 4, the Texas Legislature provides additional tools to deter illegal entry into the state, protecting Texans from criminal Mexican cartels’ activities such as drug smuggling and discouraging cartels from furthering human trafficking in Texas,” said Sindelar.

“Texas rightly asserts its sovereignty and authority to secure itstretch of the U.S.-Mexico border while the federal government is failing Texans and Americans. It is imperative that Texas continue to send the clear message to Mexico that we will not tolerate Mexican cartels’ criminal activities the way the Mexican government does,” said Secure & Sovereign Frontier Campaign Director Carine Martinez. “We will continue to work with the Legislature to ensure that SB 3 reaches the Governor’s desk as well.”