Dr. Lynn Stucky, Texas State Representative
“We have but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization …” President Theodore Roosevelt wrote those words more than 100 years ago in his letter describing his solution to the immigration crisis facing the nation.
Those words still ring true. If Americans are united around one issue, it is certainly the border crisis.
We are still seeing historic numbers of migrants crossing every month. But in the absence of leadership from Washington, D.C., Texas is taking the 10th Amendment and testing its resolve.
The first bill I passed when coming to the Texas legislature was a ban on Sanctuary Cities. We have seen the cost that these policies are having on the cities that adopted these ordinances and are now facing the consequences. Many cities, like New York and Chicago, are sharing the same burden felt by Brownsville, McAllen, and Eagle Pass.
Since coming to the legislature, I have delivered more than $12 billion on border security, drug interdiction efforts, and cracking down on human smuggling. We have put record numbers of troops and law enforcement on the border and expanded the power to enforce the law of the land. Last year I passed a law with Governor Greg Abbott to give judges the power to order illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin.
Last year we saw the federal courts reprimanded the Biden Administration for allowing border patrol agents to cut barbed wire installed by Texas as part of our ongoing Operation Lone Star effort. Texas responded by designating the cartels as terrorist organizations and passed a law to institute mandatory minimum sentences for drug smugglers and human traffickers.
Texas is asserting our Constitutional right to reserve powers not “prohibited by the Constitution,” and we will not back down. Until Washington changes its posture on border security, Texas will protect our homeland and our citizens.
I am proud to join Governor Greg Abbott in making Texas a leader in border security. We have the strongest laws in the nation and will continue to deliver solutions. We have the largest criminal justice program in the country to process individuals coming into the country illegally, a 22-county effort. And we are seeing results with the seizure of fatal amounts of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.
There is more work to do to end this crisis, but the solution is working. As always, it is my honor to serve you in the legislature.