November 7 Update: Amid Republican infighting between the leaders of the state House and Senate, House Bill 4 died as both chambers adjourned sine die on Tuesday without the bill having received a full Senate vote. Governor Greg Abbott promptly announced an additional special legislative session, starting Tuesday evening, including a call for a measure like House Bill 4 to criminalize illegal entry and reentry and authorize “the removal of illegal immigrants from Texas.”
November 1 Update: On Wednesday, state Senator Brian Birdwell—a Republican from Granbury, more than five hours by car from the Texas-Mexico border—introduced an amended version of House Bill 4 in the Senate Committee on Border Security. The new version stripped provisions, approved last week in the state House, that would have allowed state and local police officers to effectively deport individuals suspected of entering the country illegally. The updated bill also removed a proposed criminal charge for illegal reentry.
The new bill, however, would still make it a misdemeanor crime for unauthorized migrants to improperly enter Texas from a foreign nation—which attorneys and advocates say flies in the face of legal precedent that gives the federal government exclusive authority over immigration enforcement. It would also require judges to order that the state transport individuals, after they’ve completed criminal sentences for violating this law, to “federal authorities at the nearest port of entry for return to the person’s country of origin or the foreign nation from which the person entered or attempted to enter.”
