| |
| |
|
|
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has |
|
|
strayed far from its original mission, gaining a disturbing |
|
|
reputation as a mass-deportation strike force incompatible with |
|
|
democracy and human rights; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks against our |
|
|
nation, ICE was established to promote national security by |
|
|
preventing "acts of terrorism by targeting the people, money, and |
|
|
materials that support terrorist and criminal activities"; the |
|
|
agency grew wildly in subsequent years, losing its focus as its |
|
|
budget ballooned with multimillion dollar contracts for private |
|
|
companies backed by swarms of lobbyists; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Today, some 8,000 ICE agents are tasked with |
|
|
locating, arresting, detaining, and removing undocumented |
|
|
immigrants; only about 6,000 are involved in tracking the |
|
|
terrorists and transnational crime syndicates that present a grave |
|
|
peril to the nation and its people; these agents in ICE's Homeland |
|
|
Security Investigations division combat money laundering, drug |
|
|
trafficking, human smuggling, child exploitation, and cybercrimes; |
|
|
in counter-proliferation operations, they target individuals |
|
|
attempting to smuggle military and high-tech equipment out of the |
|
|
country; HSI has also been involved in such complex, high-profile |
|
|
cases as the takedown of the nefarious Silk Road website and the |
|
|
arrest and capture of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" |
|
|
Guzmán Loera; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In June 2018, 19 special agents in charge of |
|
|
regional HSI offices submitted a letter to the secretary of |
|
|
Homeland Security requesting that their division be spun off from |
|
|
ICE, stating that their work has been undermined by ICE's |
|
|
controversial detention and deportation policies; they cited a |
|
|
breakdown in partnerships with local law enforcement officials, who |
|
|
question the independence of their agency in light of aggressive |
|
|
measures against immigration; such actions include targeting |
|
|
families at churches and schools, conducting massive raids, |
|
|
arresting undocumented workers for minor offenses, and breaking up |
|
|
families by sending longtime U.S. residents to countries they |
|
|
hardly know; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, While resources are directed away from agents |
|
|
dedicated to national security, ICE exercises increased |
|
|
surveillance of communities of color and immigrant communities; |
|
|
moreover, its draconian detention policies have filled the coffers |
|
|
of companies that run for-profit facilities with a long, troubling |
|
|
history of lax oversight, unsafe conditions, and grotesque |
|
|
mistreatment, as documented by the DHS Office of Inspector General; |
|
|
in the 2019 fiscal year alone, ICE detained more than 510,000 |
|
|
immigrants, 81 percent of whom were held in such private |
|
|
facilities, costing taxpayers millions of dollars; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Before the creation of ICE, immigration violations |
|
|
were handled by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which |
|
|
was part of the Department of Justice and worked closely with the |
|
|
Department of Labor; the inclusion of these functions under ICE has |
|
|
led to the deprioritization of transnational crime fighting while |
|
|
framing immigration, historically an engine of economic |
|
|
development and societal enrichment, as a national security threat; |
|
|
ICE has become a bloated agency tainted by controversy and largely |
|
|
unmoored from its original purpose, and the responsible path |
|
|
forward is to transfer its critical national security functions and |
|
|
develop a more humane and effective immigration system that |
|
|
complies with constitutional protections, domestic law, and |
|
|
binding international treaties; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to abolish U.S. |
|
|
Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
|
|
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
|
|
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the |
|
|
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
|
|
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a |
|
|
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |