The war against Iran, the election integrity bill called the SAVE America Act, and the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security are dominating the headlines in Texas and across the country.
The Pentagon is requesting an additional $200 billion for the war against Iran.
Texas lawmakers split on U.S. strikes and strategy in Iran war
Democratic U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch told CBS News Texas she opposes the war.
“I think the war is illegal,” said Johnson. “I think it’s, you know, where are we going to stop. It’s costing the U.S. government billions of dollars a day, and there’s been no authorization from Congress. It’s outrageous what is happening, and, you know, we need to have a clear exit strategy. Right now, Trump just bombed another country with no clear plan, a no clear plan of dissolution, no clear plan of how do we stop this. He’s threatening boots on the ground. That’s a war to me that requires Congress’s involvement.”
According to the White House, between April 1983 and June of last year, nearly 1,000 Americans have been attacked and killed by Iran and its proxies, all of them designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations.
“There’s no doubt that Iran is an enemy of the United States, and Iran’s government is horrific,” Johnson said. “It engages in gross human rights abuses and needs a complete, wholesale restructuring of how that country functions. There’s no disputing that at all. Iran is a terrorist threat to Israel. It’s a terrorist threat to the United States. It’s a terrorist threat to many across the world. But there was no acute, immediate need for bombing that country at that time, from what I’m aware of.”
Johnson agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
“That is absolutely clear,” she said. “Iran cannot be a nuclear power.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound said he backs the war against Iran.
“I support what the president’s been doing here. The president was very clear. We do not believe that Iran should have nuclear capabilities,” said Gill. “We took out their nuclear program last summer. But what didn’t change, even though we took out the program, was the policy in Iran. The Iranian government still sought to create nuclear weapons. That is intolerable for the United States. At the same time, they were building up a large, short-range domestic ballistic missile program, which, combined with their naval assets, makes them a serious threat to American interests in the region. The president was very clear with them, this is intolerable. Gave them multiple off-ramps to wind down that program, to wind down the nuclear program. At one point, we even offered to give them free energy for quite some time. They said no. So, in other words, we were back up against a wall.”
The president has said he hopes the war can end soon. He campaigned against forever wars.
When asked how the administration balances that with the need to finish the job, Gill said, “This is not a forever war. That’s not the intention here, and that’s not what’s going to happen. I agree, we shouldn’t have forever wars. We shouldn’t be going into backward parts of the globe like Afghanistan and pretending that we can create, you know, modern, liberal-style democracy there. That doesn’t make any sense. It didn’t make any sense whenever we tried to do it 20 years ago. What we’re doing here is simply saying that we are not going to allow you to create a military presence that destabilizes the globe. So, this is not a forever war. It is a clear and narrow strategic interest that the United States is pursuing militarily. We’re going to achieve that objective, and I don’t think that we’re going to be talking about this several years from now.”
As many North Texans return home from spring break, they likely face longer than usual lines at the airports’ security checkpoints, where TSA officers aren’t getting paid and, in some cases, have quit their jobs altogether. It comes as the shutdown becomes the second-longest in history, with no end in sight.
Texas leaders clash over immigration enforcement and ICE reforms
Sen. John Cornyn, now fighting for his political life against Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate GOP primary runoff in late May, made news last week when he exchanged words with Democratic Congressman Greg Casar outside Austin’s airport about TSA and four recent incidents, some of them deadly, being investigated as terror attacks.
Casar asked Cornyn, “There’s a bipartisan bill to fund just the TSA. Can we do that together?”
Cornyn said, “Not acceptable.”
Casar: “Not acceptable to fund just the TSA?”
Cornyn replied, “How about all the terrorist attacks like we’ve seen down on 6th Street. You want those to continue? These people are keeping us safe. Tell the Democrats to vote for funding the DHS.”
Johnson insisted the Trump administration and Republicans need to make changes to how ICE operates before DHS’s funding can be restored.
“We want to see a complete overhaul of what this agency is doing,” Johnson said. “We want them to target the violent criminals, for sure, but what they’re doing, and the way they are doing it, is unacceptable. They’re just picking up people who are just going to work.”
Republicans point out that ICE is already funded thanks to their approval last year of the reconciliation bill. When asked about DHS being shut down after the recent four attacks being investigated as terrorism, including the shooting on 6th Street in Austin, Johnson said, “I know, it’s terrible what’s happening. I hope that we can get together in DC and reach some solutions to be able to reopen the government and keep the people’s business going. We have a lot of important work with transportation, the Coast Guard, and other agencies that fall within DHS, as you imply. But at the end of the day, the way ICE is being was led under Kristi Noem—thank goodness she’s gone. We’ll see what the new head does. If they change their protocols, if they change their rules and their operating procedures, then that will be significant. If they keep business as usual, then I don’t think Democrats are inclined to continue to fund it.”
SAVE America Act fuels fierce voting rights debate
Cornyn and Paxton remain on the ballot after neither of them withdrew last Tuesday, the last day to do so. It comes as President Trump has said he will make an endorsement in the race.
Last week, Cornyn was among the Republican senators pushing to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in a federal election, in addition to showing ID. Cornyn criticized the Democrats’ opposition to the bill, which has become a focal point in the runoff with Paxton.
Speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, Cornyn said, “It will disenfranchise illegal aliens. It will disenfranchise noncitizens. That’s the point, and they don’t want to do that? Again, you have to wonder why. Is that because they want noncitizens, illegal immigrants, to be able to vote?”
Gill told CBS News Texas that the SAVE America Act is one of the most important bills.
“The House should not vote on any Senate bill until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act,” said Gill. “So, I think that the House should send all kinds of bills to the Senate, whether it’s on FISA or other pieces of legislation that are important, but we shouldn’t be taking up Senate bills while they’re holding up the Save America Act. I think that’s something that the vast majority of our voters, especially Republican voters, agree with.”
“The SAVE America Act is the single most important piece of legislation we have in front of us right now. It is the bill that would stop illegal aliens from voting in American elections. This is particularly relevant, of course, after 4 years of open borders, when between 15 and 20 million illegal aliens have poured into our country. Many Americans have a very reasonable suspicion that those illegal aliens, especially in blue states, which have lax voter ID laws and election integrity laws, are going to be voting. That’s a problem that undermines confidence in our election systems.”
Democrats have criticized the bill, saying it will make it difficult for citizens who don’t have a copy of their birth certificate or a passport to prove they are Americans. Gill rejected that.
“There are multiple ways to show, to prove that you’re an American citizen,” he said.
“You got a passport. You’ve got a birth certificate. You’ve got all kinds of different things that you can do. However, even if you can’t get any of these varieties of documents that could prove that you can also get somebody else who would actually vouch for you. That’s totally legal under this bill. So, the idea that this disenfranchises anybody is absolutely ludicrous. To the contrary, not passing a bill like the SAVE America Act disenfranchises American citizens because every time an illegal alien votes in American elections, that undoes the vote of a legal American citizen, who should be the only group of people who are voting.”