ACLU Comment on State Rep. Bonnen’s Demand for Federal ‘Reimbursement’ for State Border Security Spending

AUSTIN — Today, Texas State Representative Steve Bonnen (R-Angleton) took to the House floor to demand the Obama administration pay $2.8 billion as a “reimbursement” for Texas’ unilateral funding of border enforcement initiatives.

The following statement may be attributed to Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas:

“Texas’ border cities are vibrant, thriving communities with crime rates lower than those of Houston, Austin or Washington, D.C. The only thing the Texas ‘surge’ has achieved is to turn them into racially profiled, over-policed, over-militarized occupied territories that foment insecurity and fear in the hard-working people who live there. Rep. Bonnen and his colleagues wasted billions in taxpayer money on a bad idea and now they want that money back? This is another example of legislators’ misplaced priorities: spending money you don’t have on something you don’t need.”