Texas legislator defends new law allowing police to arrest migrants who entered illegally
State Rep. David Spiller:
Well, I think that shows how silly that argument is, quite frankly. And, quite frankly, it's offensive.
How can you — we are a country of immigrants. How can you tell by looking at anyone whether they crossed here illegally or when they did so or where they crossed? You can't. And law enforcement can't determine that. There are things that law enforcement can determine. But there are things that not — so what Arizona did was, show me your papers.
There's no requirement to show any papers whatsoever. The question is, can the law enforcement officer prove and prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each and every element of that offense for illegal entry has been proven? And, if so, fine, they can be prosecuted for that.
But, otherwise, there is no probable cause to believe that someone just, because they may look different or — the other thing is, we're getting people, I mean, crossing illegally into Texas from over 100 countries around the world. This is not about Hispanic people. It's not about Black people. It's about people entering our country illegally.
And we are trying to do our best to address the problem. And we're having to address the problem because the federal government refuses to do so.
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