Texas Bill (Border Protection Unit Act) Headed the Direction of Arizona's SB 1070?

 

News from Texas:  The Republican leadership in the Texas House of Representatives announced this week that passing a bill to make illegal immigration a felony is a top priority.

The Border Protection Unit Act, supported by key leaders of the majority-Republican Texas House of Representatives, would create a border protection police force and make illegal immigration a felony.  Here is the bill.

The bill would allow the state officers to in effect deputize private citizens to assist in immigration enforcement.  Sounds to me like rounding a posse in the old West.

I am not sure how much of the Texas bill would survive the Supreme Court's federal preemption decision in Arizona v. United States (2012), which struck down the bulk of Arizona's SB 1070 and its efforts to criminalize unlawful immigration under state law.

KJ