Texas elected officials and candidates’ response to the deadly shooting in downtown Austin on Sunday quickly turned political, as Republicans sharply criticized the country’s naturalization process and Democrats called for stricter gun reform laws.
Republicans’ rebukes of the immigration system came after media outlets identified the gunman, whom police killed within a minute of arriving at the scene, as a naturalized citizen from Senegal. The Department of Homeland Security said the man entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2000, became a lawful permanent resident by marrying a U.S. citizen in 2006 and was naturalized in 2013.
