Border Security & Public Safety

· Border Security is one of the most pressing issues facing the state. I cast votes each legislative session to increase funding for border security, up from $500 million to over $5 billion to be used to pay for increased National Guard, State Guard, State Troopers, Texas military equipment, building a state border wall and installing floating barriers. These measures curtail the flow of illegal immigrants into our state and give law enforcement more resources to effectively, and safely do their jobs.

· In 2021, I helped pass HB 1540 to increase state penalties for human trafficking and, in 2023, backed HB 6 to establish greater criminal penalties for fentanyl poisoning.

· In 2023, I authored and passed into law The Bishop Evans Act, HB 90, to provider greater workman’s compensation and death benefits to our National and State Guardsmen serving on state active duty orders, like Operation Lone Star. This bill is named after Sgt. Bishop Evans who lost his life in service to our nation and state at the southern border.

· Following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I sponsored and passed SB 22 to outline specific pandemic protections to first responders who previously had to use personal time or funds to quarantine or seek medical attention following an exposure.

· Along those same lines, I authored and passed HB 471 in 2023 to ensure first responders catastrophically injured in the line of duty have up to a year of paid leave to heal. Previously, a first responder could be fired after a line-of-duty injury if he or she couldn’t return to work quickly.

· After calls to defund the police in liberal cities across America, I coauthored and passed HB 1900 which would give the state the ability to defund any city which chooses to defund the police. If a city was found to have cut their law enforcement budgets by a certain amount, the state can now withhold sales and use tax revenue from that particular community and instead put it toward additional costs incurred by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Further, it would restrict cities from raising property taxes or utility fees to make up the shortage in sales tax dollars. In Texas, we Back the Blue!

· During the 88th legislature, I coauthored and helped pass HB 718 which will stop the use of paper tags on vehicles purchased in Texas. Gangs and drug cartels are known to utilize paper tags, which can be purchased online and printed at home, to avoid or trick law enforcement. HB 718 will end the use of paper tags by 2025 by requiring vendors to either transfer existing plates or install new metal plates upon purchasing a vehicle.

· Rogue District Attorneys who refuse to enforce laws they disagree with politically will now be reigned-in. I proudly coauthored and helped pass HB 17 in 2023, which allows Texans to file a petition calling for the removal of district attorneys who refuse to prosecute criminal offenses and expands the definition of “official misconduct” for which a district attorney can be removed from office.

Pol Adv. Paid For By Jared Patterson Campaign.