MAGA WITH TWO S'S:

As the Texas Tribune observed at the time, Patrick was parroting the white supremacist "great replacement" conspiracy theory, which claims that liberal elites are bringing nonwhite immigrants into the United States to "replace" the country's white and native-born population, including in voting. This conspiracy theory fueled the 2019 El Paso mass shooting by a white supremacist who targeted Latinos and killed 23 people. That shooter wrote that his attack was due to "the Hispanic invasion of Texas" and denounced Latino political power in the state--in broad strokes, a version of the arguments that Patrick made two years later.

Fast forward to the present. Texas is on the cusp of passing possibly the most extreme anti-immigrant bill in decades. HB4 would create a state crime of improper entry from a foreign country by a noncitizen: essentially a state-law copy of the federal improper-entry criminal prohibition. Further, HB4 would permit law enforcement to "in lieu of arrest, remove a person" from the United States by "transporting the person to a port of entry" and "ordering the person to return to the foreign nation from which the person entered or attempted to enter." The bill provides for no due process before such summary expulsion, and it does not provide any limit based on length of time a person has resided in the United States or proximity to the border. An undocumented individual who crossed the border decades ago, or someone who had just crossed fleeing persecution in Mexico, would be at risk of summary expulsion by a state or local law enforcement officer. Refusal to comply would be a second-degree felony. The bill author admitted under questioning that family separation due to HB4 is possible. HB4 is extreme anti-immigrant state legislation, and an extraordinary state arrogation of the exclusively federal power to regulate entry to and exit from the United States.

Not coincidentally, Texas politics is also experiencing an earthquake from the revelation that white supremacist and neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes met with a major conservative operative for six and a half hours. Fuentes regularly praises Hitler and has expressed despicable views on the Holocaust, among other antisemitic, white supremacist, and misogynistic statements.

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