Bill Text: TX HR69 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging the president of the United States to end the Zero Tolerance Policy with respect to immigration and to uphold the provisions of the Flores Agreement.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-02-19 - Referred to State Affairs [HR69 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HR69-Introduced.html
86R2261 BPG-D | ||
By: Walle | H.R. No. 69 |
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WHEREAS, On June 20, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed | ||
an executive order designed to quell mounting public outrage over | ||
the family separation crisis at the U.S./Mexico border, but the | ||
administration's Zero Tolerance Policy on immigration continues to | ||
harm children; and | ||
WHEREAS, The Zero Tolerance Policy was introduced in April | ||
2018, when the U.S. attorney general directed federal prosecutors | ||
along the southwestern border to criminally prosecute all | ||
immigrants entering the country without authorization, regardless | ||
of whether they were seeking asylum or refugee status; parents | ||
apprehended at the border were arrested and jailed, while their | ||
minor children, including babies and toddlers too young to talk, | ||
were taken from them by the Border Patrol and eventually dispatched | ||
to Department of Health and Human Services shelters, many of them | ||
thousands of miles away; and | ||
WHEREAS, Across the country and around the world, people | ||
reacted with horror at images and news reports of distraught | ||
children and grieving parents; medical professionals warned that | ||
children could suffer lasting psychological trauma, and in a | ||
Washington Post op-ed, former first lady Laura Bush decried the | ||
Zero Tolerance Policy as "cruel" and "immoral"; after President | ||
Trump issued his executive order halting the practice of family | ||
separation, a federal court ordered the government to reunite | ||
nearly 3,000 migrant children and their parents within 30 days, but | ||
the process was greatly complicated by shoddy recordkeeping during | ||
the hasty implementation of the Zero Tolerance Policy; more than | ||
three months later, over 100 minors remained in federal custody; | ||
and | ||
WHEREAS, On September 27, 2018, the Department of Homeland | ||
Security Office of Inspector General issued an initial report on | ||
family separation issues under the Zero Tolerance Policy; it | ||
revealed a chaotic interagency process that did not establish a | ||
means to track the identity of preverbal children in government | ||
custody; moreover, it found that at least 860 migrant children had | ||
been left in austere Border Patrol holding cells for longer than the | ||
legal limit of 72 hours; and | ||
WHEREAS, Although the family separation measures ended, | ||
older youths have continued to cross the border on their own in | ||
search of a better life, and immigration policies still in place | ||
have driven the overall number of unaccompanied minors in detention | ||
to record levels; in September 2018, the New York Times reported | ||
that the migrant youth population at federally contracted shelters | ||
had more than quintupled in a year, to over 13,000, as unaccompanied | ||
minors spend longer periods in custody; Department of Health and | ||
Human Services data suggests that the rise is due to increasingly | ||
stringent regulations and heightened fears of deportation, which | ||
discourage relatives and family friends from coming forward as | ||
sponsors for these children; as a result, shelters have hovered | ||
near 90 percent capacity, and in early September, the | ||
administration announced the tripling of its temporary "tent city" | ||
for children in Tornillo; such shelters are far more costly than | ||
traditional shelters, and they offer neither education nor mental | ||
health services, nor are they regulated by state child welfare | ||
authorities, as are permanent shelters; protracted stays in such | ||
facilities risk deepening the trauma already suffered by these | ||
youngsters; and | ||
WHEREAS, The economic cost of expanded detention is not | ||
inconsiderable; internal documents from the Department of Health | ||
and Human Services reveal that more than $260 million has been | ||
reallocated to the program, taking funding away from such essential | ||
services as the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes | ||
of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; | ||
another $200 million has been redirected within the Department of | ||
Homeland Security to the aggressive immigration enforcement agenda | ||
from FEMA, the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, the | ||
U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, | ||
cybersecurity, the Transportation Security Administration, and | ||
other departments; and | ||
WHEREAS, While the crisis among migrant youths has unfolded, | ||
the Trump administration has worked to circumvent long-standing | ||
legal time limits on their detention; such constraints were imposed | ||
by the court in the 1997 Flores Agreement, a consent decree stemming | ||
from a class action lawsuit over the physical and emotional harm | ||
suffered by children confined in jail-like settings; a judge | ||
rejected the administration's request to suspend the Flores | ||
Agreement in July 2018, but the administration is currently seeking | ||
approval to withdraw from the consent decree and replace it with a | ||
new agreement with looser restrictions; and | ||
WHEREAS, The Zero Tolerance Policy has exacted a terrible | ||
human toll and significant economic costs, causing hardship and | ||
heartbreak while draining resources from agencies and programs that | ||
protect Americans and improve their lives; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas | ||
Legislature hereby respectfully urge the president of the United | ||
States to end the Zero Tolerance Policy in regards to immigration | ||
and to uphold the important provisions of the Flores Agreement; | ||
and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That the chief clerk forward an official copy of | ||
this resolution to the president as an expression of sentiment by | ||
the Texas House of Representatives. |