Texas Monthly asked GOP lawmakers to defend Trump’s deportation plan, only two replied

With President-elect Donald Trump pledging to conduct mass deportations that could sweep up roughly 1.6 million people statewide, Texas Monthly reached out to “top Texas officials and every Republican state legislator” to get their take.

After all, the magazine pointed out in an article posted Monday, deportations on that scale would have a seismic effect on the Lone State State’s economy.

For example, a recent American Immigration Council report cited by Texas Monthly estimates that mass deportations would slash the national GDP by 4.2% to 6.8%. Closer to home, a Texas A&M AgriLife analysis predicts bad news for Texas’ budget because the state’s undocumented immigrants pay $4.9 billion in sales and payroll taxes annually.

With that in mind, here are the questions Texas Monthly posed to more than 100 Texas Republican officeholders:

• Do you support President Trump’s plan to deport all immigrants in the country illegally?
• How would you like the deportations to be carried out?
• Are you concerned about the potential economic damage to the Texas construction, farming, and restaurant industries from deporting undocumented immigrants? If so, how would you remedy that damage?
• Are you concerned about the family separations that will occur if all undocumented Texas are deported?

Turns out, only two of Texas GOP elected officials on the magazine’s list, State Sens. Bryan Hughes and Lois Kolkhorst, had the backbone to respond.

The list of those who didn’t reply includes statewide elected officials Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Interestingly, Cruz has long been an advocate of mass deportations. San Antonio-area GOP lawmakers who failed to respond include State Sens. Donna Campbell and Pete Flores along with State Reps. Steve Allison, Mark Dorazio, Carrie Isaac, John Lujan and Andrew S. Murr.
Even those two Republican legislators who did respond didn’t answer the questions in full, Texas Monthly reports. Kolkhorst, for example, declined to address the inquiries about the economy or family separations, instead issuing a statement focused on a single homicide allegedly carried out by an immigrant illegally in the state, according to Texas Monthly.

Meanwhile, Hughes argued that the process will move slowly enough that Texas businesses will be able to hire other people to fill jobs vacated by people caught up in deportation sweeps.

Never mind that the number of U.S. citizens willing to work in construction and landscaping is in steep decline, as the magazine points out.

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This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2024.