The proposal, written by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Lakeway, establishes a “mandatory minimum” prison sentence of 10 years.
Abbott, who has made border security one of his key priorities-made increasing the penalty for human smuggling one of his seven emergency items during his State of the State speech in February.The Border Security committee voted 4-1. Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, joined the three other Republicans on the panel. The panel, however, decided not to supportSmuggling received national attention in Texas last year following the deaths ofleft under the scorching sun in June 2022.
Opponents of the increased penalty proposal disagree that stiffening the punishment will deter or stop people from committing smuggling offenses., said creating a mandatory minimum system would ban judges from weighing different circumstances when considering individual cases that deal with smuggling.“Mandatory minimums are not evidence-based,” Hudson said.
Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, supports efforts to beef up border security but doubts the call for harder human smuggling penalties will have the desired effect. “What on God’s green Earth would make us think that increasing sentences for human smugglers is the new solution,” Canales said in a telephone interview. “At this point, I don’t believe that we are meeting the goals that the public expects from us.”
The Senate is scheduled to return at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will likely give approval- on Flores’ smuggling bill. The Senate will also likely consider two other border related proposals that sway away from Abbott’s directive for the first overtime session.
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