Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Texas Border Wall Construction Kick-Off event on a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County that has recently been purchased by the Texas General Land Office.
Land Commissioner Buckingham granted a 7,681-foot long (1.45 mile) easement to build a portion of the Texas border wall and began construction almost immediately. Initially, the primary purpose of the land was to construct a wall on the land (which used to be one of the most heavily trafficked and dangerous portions of the border).
Now that President Trump has been elected, Commissioner Buckingham has additionally offered the land to him to use as a deportation site for Trump’s deportation force under soon-to-be border czar Tom Homan.
I am very excited about Tom Homan. He is the perfect man for the job – to organize and execute the largest deportation task force since Dwight Eisenhower.
As most of you have heard, a number of Democrat elected officials are claiming they will not cooperate with Homan or ICE.
Homan’s response? He warned them that “it is a felony to harbor or conceal an illegal alien from ICE. They need to educate themselves,” Homan said during an interview with Fox News. “They need to review this: Title 8 U.S.C. § 1324— read about that and don’t cross that line. Because it is a felony to harbor or conceal an illegal alien from ICE. Read the statute. Don’t cross that line.”
Pertinent sections of Title 8 U.S.Code § 1324
§1324. Bringing in and harboring certain aliens (a) Criminal penalties
(1)(A) Any person who—
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs—
(ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;
As most of y’all have already seen, Immigration and Custom Enforcement released a bombshell report earlier this fall documenting just how bad the situation is in regard to criminal illegal aliens running free within our communities. The following is an excerpt from the ICE report as reported by National Review on Sept. 3 (emphasis mine):
“As of July, 662,566 Illegal Immigrants on ICE’s Docket Have a Criminal History.
“Back in mid March, GOP representative Tony Gonzales, who represents a district covering much of the southwestern border of Texas, asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “information on illegal immigrants on ICE’s docket to better understand how many potential criminals were being released into our communities.”
“It took nearly six months, but ICE deputy director Patrick Lechleitner responded to the congressman’s request with perhaps the mother of all Friday-afternoon news dumps: As of July 2024, 662,566 illegal immigrants on ICE’s docket have a criminal history. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 illegal immigrants face pending criminal charges.
“Among those not in ICE detention, there are 425,431 convicted criminals and 222,141 with pending criminal charges.
“These are, in many cases, violent criminals. Some 62,231 were convicted of assault, 14,301 were convicted of burglary, and 13,099 were convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions.
“There are an additional 1,845 with pending homicide charges, 42,915 with assault charges, 3,266 with burglary charges, and 4,250 with assault charges. ICE records showed 792 illegal immigrants on their docket convicted of arson, 2,200 convicted of ‘commercialized sex offenses,’ 9,461 convicted of sex offenses not involving assault or commercialized sex, and 13,413 convicted of ‘weapon charges.’”
Great news! When the 89th Legislative session begins in Austin on Jan. 14, about 25 liberal incumbents in the Texas House will not be returning. Fifteen were defeated in the Republican primary last spring while the others retired (many of whom knew they would be defeated). The great news is that most of them are being replaced by principled conservative Republicans who are tired of weak go-along-to-get-along Republicans!
Looking forward to fighting for you in Austin after I get sworn in on Jan. 14.
Blessings,
Mike Olcott
