Texas Senate declares migrant surge at their Southern border an emergency

The Texas Tribune is reporting that Texas Senate Republicans have passed a resolution declaring a crisis at the Texas-Mexico border and requesting that Congress fully fund “all means necessary” to secure it.

Texas Senate Democrats claim they didn’t see Senate Resolution 535 until it was on the Senate floor.

The resolution, “calls upon the United States Congress to adopt a budget that fully funds all means necessary to fully secure the Texas-Mexico international border, including, but not limited to, deploying personnel, implementing effective technologies, and erecting barriers where needed.”

It goes on to state, “The Texas Senate supports the President in his efforts to move forward with emergency action; and, be it further, that the Secretary of the Texas Senate forward official copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to the President of the U.S. Senate, and to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and to all members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record.”

The Texas Tribune quoted State Senator Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, saying, “I think there’s no question that, speaking with a voice that recognizes the obvious, there is a crisis at the border.”

The Texas Tribune says Senate Democrats opposed the bill for various reasons. State Senator Royce West, D-Dallas, was quoted saying, “The crisis is in our inner cities. If you’re going to be the crisis patrol, there are crises that exist much larger than the one that you’re describing on our border.”

For the Texas Tribune’s full report, click here.