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Texas lawmakers finished this year’s legislative session by sending two bills to the governor that would further solidify the state’s role in enforcing immigration laws — but did not advance a variety of other immigration-related proposals.
Lawmakers passed two priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Senate Bill 8 will mandate that most Texas sheriffs collaborate with federal immigration authorities and Senate Bill 36 will create a homeland security division within the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Among legislation that didn’t pass was a bill to commission a state study of the impact of illegal immigration for the first time in two decades, a proposal to require employers to verify their workers’ immigration status and an audit of the state’s $11 billion worth of spending on border security since 2021.
Here’s what you need to know
Most counties will have to participate in federal enforcement programs
Senate Bill 8, which received support from President Donald Trump, would apply to approximately 234 of the state’s 254 counties, according to a bill author.
Under a 1996 federal immigration law, ICE can authorize local authorities to carry out certain types of immigration enforcement. In local jails officers can be deputized to question inmates about their immigration status and to serve administrative warrants. In the field, officers can question people about their immigration status through a model the Trump administration has revived after it fell into disuse following allegations that it led to racial profiling.
Such programs serve as “force multipliers” for ICE, an agency of about 6,000 officers with limited resources, according to the federal agency, immigration lawyers and policing experts.
SB 8, which creates a grant program to help offset costs that are not covered by the federal government, will let sheriffs decide which program they participate in. The bill awaits Gov. Greg Abbot’s signature.
Texas won’t study the costs of illegal immigration
State Sen. Mayes Middleton’s Senate Bill 825 would have tasked the governor’s office with conducting a biannual study of the economic, environmental and financial effects of illegal immigration on the state — but solely focus on the costs without analyzing the economic benefits undocumented Texans contribute through labor, taxes and businesses.
The last time the state conducted a similar study, then-state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican, found in 2006 that undocumented Texans contributed more to the state’s economy than they cost the state.
The bill made it through a House committee but did not advance to the full chamber before the end of the session.
Businesses won’t have to verify workers’ legal status
Lawmakers also introduced bills that would require companies to use E-Verify — a federal government website that helps businesses determine whether an immigrant is legally allowed to work in the U.S.
Senators advanced one such proposal, Senate Bill 324, filed by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, but it died in the House without receiving a vote.
Democratic senators unsuccessfully tried to tack on amendments that would have ensured people in the country legally would not be affected by the bill should the Trump administration change their status or ability to work. Another amendment aimed to add a delay period to the requirement aimed at offsetting potential impacts on the state economy.
Kolkhorst said she hopes the bill would signal to lawmakers and federal officials that Texas is serious about hiring workers here legally — and inspire them to address worker shortages with solutions like a guest worker program. Efforts to create such a program at the state level also failed this session.
The state for years has expanded E-Verify requirements, but typically has not punished businesses that hire undocumented workers. The Pew Research Center estimates that unauthorized immigrants make up approximately 8% of the state’s workforce, including a large presence in the hospitality, restaurant, energy and construction industries.
Landowners can get tax breaks for allowing border wall construction
When Trump left office in 2020, Texas continued building the border wall that he had started. But the state has faced resistance from landowners, and has built a fragmented wall mostly in remote areas.
Lawmakers sought to address some of the challenges.
House Bill 247, introduced by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, will give a property tax break to landowners who have allowed state or federal border barriers to be built on their property. The proposal says the tax break would be available to any landowners who allow the state or the federal government to install “a wall, barrier, fence, wire, road trench, technology” or any type of infrastructure “to surveil or impede the movement of persons or objects crossing the Texas-Mexico border.”
The bill was approved by both chambers and sent to the governor.
Another proposed solution failed. Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, filed Senate Bill 316, which would have let the state take people’s land for the border wall, a process called eminent domain, that the Legislature previously prohibited for the wall project.
SB 316 was sent to a committee of the upper chamber but never received a hearing.
Texas’ homeland security efforts will be reorganized
Proponents of SB 36, which creates the new homeland security division within the Department of Public Safety, said the agency needs the new unit to streamline efforts like border security and emergency disaster response plans that are currently spread among various agencies. The bill ultimately did not include creation of the state’s own border patrol force, which advocates for more border security had pushed for.
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