Good morning, 

As it turns out, a whole lot of Texas Minute readers have some very strong opinions about border security… or, rather, the publicity stunts around the lack thereof…

Here is the Texas Minute for April 20, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Is Texas Prepared For The Invasion?

• As the Biden administration prepares for the repeal of Title 42—which removes the Border Patrol’s ability to turn back illegal aliens at the border due to the pandemic—thousands are expected to converge on the Texas-Mexico border. Sydnie Henry reports on what one national group says Texas can do to stop them.
      
• The Center for Renewing America has proposed that each state enact Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution under the declaration that the border crisis is indeed an invasion and the federal government has failed to address it. This clause would allow for states to repel an invasion themselves by utilizing their state guards; it would also allow for governors to enter into an interstate compact to secure the border.
     
• Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich released a legal opinion declaring the border crisis an invasion. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been asked to release a similar analysis for the Lone Star State.
    
• Once an “invasion” is declared, other state-based actions could include screening requirements and required check-ins for sponsors of illegal alien minors, contracting license requirements for refugee resettlers, the publication of data on state healthcare spending for illegal aliens and the criminal history of illegal aliens, stripping cities of state funding if they refuse to cooperate, mandating the use of E-verify, and deploying the Department of Public Safety to the border to detain and return illegal aliens to Mexico as trespassers.

Lawmakers Urged: End The Porn Loophole

• A Texas parent concerned about schools exposing children to sexually explicit materials has started a petition urging lawmakers to close the legal loopholes allowing obscene books into students’ libraries. Erin Anderson has the story.
   
• A petition circulating around the state calls on lawmakers to repeal and rewrite the “obscenity exemptions” in Texas Penal Code Sec. 43.24, the state law prohibiting the distribution of harmful material to minors.
      
• “If we repeal 43.24(c), watch how fast the books come off the shelves, and the finger-pointing stops, and distributors hesitate sending the books with obscene writing, drawings, or pictures,” petition author James Pope told Texas Scorecard.
     
• Retired Texas DPS investigator Glen Aaron affirmed that concern at last week’s Fredericksburg ISD school board meeting, telling trustees that child predators often use sexually explicit materials found in schools. “Typically, a groomer will get this information through the student … through the schools. This has been going for on a while. I’m amazed that parents and school boards are just now figuring this out.”

Amid Public Outcry, Texas Tech Postpones Drag Show

• Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center planned to host a free “Spring Queening” drag event at the school’s Lubbock campus… but has put it on hold for now following public backlash. As Jacob Asmussen reports, the event was designed to raise money for the left-wing advocacy and lobbying group Equality Texas.
     
• That group, of course, is an LGBT sexual-political advocacy organization that has fought at the state Capitol to keep child mutilation experiments—including cutting off adolescents’ healthy body parts or administering sterilizing cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker drugs—legal in Texas.
      
• Texas Scorecard sent the public university a request for comment on the situation, but as of Tuesday afternoon, they had not responded. It is unclear what other events featuring “adult entertainers” the taxpayer-funded university has considered hosting.

Texans React To Judge Lifting Mask Mandate

• A federal court in Florida ended the nationwide mask mandate on mass transit this week by declaring the Centers for Disease Control exceeded its authority by issuing the broad mandate. The Biden administration waived the white flag and agreed not to enforce the mandate. Texas Scorecard has reactions from Texas-based airlines and travelers. 
      
• “I’m currently at DFW Airport waiting on a flight to Tampa,” Dan Dennis of Covington told Texas Scorecard. “It’s a mix of masks and no masks in the terminal. There were no hassles; apparently, the word was passed quickly around the airport yesterday. Gotta say, this is the best I’ve felt about flying in more than 25 years of travel.”

Real Reform Needed In Education

• In a new commentary, Richard Illyes of Alvin explains the problems in public education require innovative solutions that go beyond pouring more money into a failing, monopolistic system.
     
• “We should create an individual educational endowment fund for each K-12 student. Student endowment funds will pay out annually for students who achieved minimum grade-level knowledge, including to the parents of homeschooled students,” proposes Illyes. “Providers for students who did poorly will not be paid, leaving twice the annual amount available next year to educators who could catch them up.”

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Y’All Answered

Currently, both the state and federal governments are engaged in “catch and release” programs, hoping the illegals will appear for court hearings. So yesterday we asked readers what they would do with the illegal aliens entering the country. 

Of the several thousand responding to the survey, 3.07% said they like Texas taxpayers paying for the illegals’ bus or plane tickets to Washington, D.C., while 96.93% want the illegal aliens marched back across the border.

Here’s a sampling from the inbox… 

• “Why do we watch the hoards cross the border and then wring our hands and wonder what to do about it? Having no real border security is insane, and if the Feds won’t do it, Texans should. We put fences around our homes, lock the doors to our businesses, homes and cars, but we’re not allowed to properly vet everyone who enters our country? It’s lunacy!” – Eleanor Bigbie
     
• “If our borders in Texas continue to disappear and only be a bus stop for illegal immigration, we will no longer be an independent state of Texas. Soon we will be one with Mexico and ruled by fear and tyranny. And we will be running to another state for freedom!” – Bathsheba Campbell
     
• “These individuals are here ILLEGALLY; send them back immediately. Do not reward them for breaking the law.” – Bobbie Ligon
   
• “Governor Abbott should declare the Texas border activity as an invasion of foreigners and activate the constitutional amendment to use military force to close the border. It is way past the time when Texas needs to take this action to save our state from the invasion since the Biden administration will not take the responsibility!” – George McClure 

      

• “What would I want done with an illegal intruder to my home? I would not send them to my neighbor.” – Gregory Reinhart
     
• “The costs of sending illegals to Washington, D.C., should be paid by Abbott himself since he is using it as a stunt to get re-elected.  How much more of Abbott's tricks and stunts are people going to take?” – Alan Smith
    
• “The idea that we would further the agenda of illegals by providing transportation and sending them deeper into our country rather than sending them straight back into Mexico is absurd.” – Hamila Hobson

       

• “‘Marched back across the border.’ The cheaper of the options, but keeping them ‘out’ to start with is the most cost effective way to hold down cost.” – Joe Zimmer
       

• “Abbott is being too clever by half in voluntarily busing illegal aliens - and an unknown number of hidden terrorists - to other parts of the country. It still enables illegal behavior, into and across OUR beloved Texas.” – Robert Lee
     
• “Why should we pay to have illegals hauled to D.C. at our expense? They're still here in our country illegally costing we, the people, money to support them. Why are we even letting them come here illegally?? Stop the invasion at the border!” – Debbie Lawson
      
• “The state has money to buy jet fuel for free trips to D.C. but can’t reduce the gas tax for citizens. School districts have money to send librarians to conventions to be entertained by crossdressers, but can’t seem to reduce the taxes I pay them? Something is terribly wrong.” – Steve Sullivan
     
• “I'm sure whatever a bus ticket to D.C. costs would keep them in a Mexican prison for a decent amount of time.” – David Peters
    
• “Catch and release is fine when it comes to fishing. But, we have a serious problem with illegals crossing the border. Abbott's idea of sending them, at the taxpayers’ expense, does not solve the problem for Texas, it only makes it someone else's. The illegals are still in the country! And they will keep coming since they are allowed to stay. They need to be turned around and sent back over the border.” – Cathy Blake
   
• “Send them back. Yes, it is an INVASION!  I got out my millennial brain from my back pocket and looked its definition up.” – Jerry Bledsoe

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.