AUSTIN, Texas — Illegal immigration across the Texas-Mexico border continues to be a hot-button issue at the State Capitol. That’s partially why Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session and tasked lawmakers with passing a bill to increase penalties for human smuggling.

On Tuesday morning, the Senate Committee on Border Security advanced its own legislation to the full Senate, but left the House version pending. Both bills would increase the penalty for smuggling to at least a third-degree felony with a mandatory minimum 10-year jail sentence.

“We've seen how the cartels and other bad actors take advantage of migrants by packing them into tractor trailers and exploiting them through trafficking and other means of profit,” said Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, who authored the Senate version of the bill.

But the House's bill also said family members could get a reduced sentence, even if the smuggler is requiring payment or carrying a gun.

“I have big problems with that,” Sen. Flores said. “If you're taking money, you're carrying a firearm and you're… smuggling people, that doesn't sound like something a family member with love does.” 

In the morning, the committee made it clear that they were not going to advance the House version because of that language.

“There are significant challenges with HB 2, so it’s not my intent to vote it [out of committee],” said Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury. 

But when committee members briefly reconvened several hours later, Sen. Flores presented a committee substitute in which the contested language in the House bill was removed. The committee then voted to advance the updated bill to the Senate floor. 

“This makes House Bill 2 a clean bill and identical to Senate Bill 5,” said Sen. Flores.

Bob Libal, a consultant with the advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, testified against the bills. He said both would mostly impact young U.S. citizens who are recruited off social media to drive migrants from border communities to bigger cities. He added that this type of legislation would fill Texas prisons and cost taxpayers.

“So actually, the thing to undermine the cartels is to provide an orderly way for people to migrate into this country that respects people's human rights,” Libal said.

In the morning, the Senate committee also passed a bill that would create a state-run Border Force to deter migrants crossing the border illegally, and another that would make it a state crime to bypass a legal port of entry when entering Texas. Neither of these bills are what the governor asked for when he called a special session. And, the House is not in session to approve either bill or the human smuggling bill because it already adjourned sine die.

But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, is calling on House members to come back to the Capitol so they can work on the language of the human smuggling bill. 

“There's some flaws in that bill that we have to send back to the House to fix so we can send to the governor. If there were not flaws in that bill, we would have passed it right to the governor. But we have no one to work with. The Senate continues to work and the House continues to stay home,” Patrick said. 

And since the House probably will stay home, Gov. Abbott might have to call another special session to get this border security legislation passed.

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