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Texas Republicans propose creation of vigilante group to hunt migrants at the border that will have immunity from prosecution
(independent.co.uk)submitted 2 months ago byrubber-stunt-baby
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2 months ago
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16.6k points
2 months ago
This is literally the definition of a lynch squad
4.8k points
2 months ago
No no no, see, they just target brown people and are above the law so what happens, happens.... /s
1.1k points
2 months ago
You can't break the law if you're above it. Checkmate atheists migrants.
423 points
2 months ago
Texas GOP: They're just like not important. like they don't matter.
Normal people: Horrified gaze
Texas GOP: It’s like, they’re not even real people.
Normal people: Horrified gaze
Texas GOP: Bottom line is, no one’s gonna get in trouble, nobody should feel sad AT ALL.
339 points
2 months ago
I swear I hear conversations like this way too often here
Texas: nobody should feel sad AT ALL.
Normal people: horrified gaze
Texas: I mean, none of the white people
Normal people: horrified gaze
Texas: why do you even care? Your not one of them! Is it cause you’re poor?
Normal people: horrified gaze
Texas: it’s cause your a lady, right?
Do not ever underestimate how far they will keep digging that hole.
193 points
2 months ago
It’s really quite simple, the religion has extensively laid the groundwork for generations to train people to believe in authority figures with unverifiable stories instead of science and data. It also primes them for, and is built upon, perpetuating racism and fearmongering towards "others". Once people see you as an authority, you can start fabricating any reality or conspiracy theory you want your followers to believe and everyone else is therefore a liar, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence. Basically, it is mental abuse from an early age that suppresses critical thinking skills. This combined with an intentionally weakened public educational system, provides the framework that has spawned this cult of ignorance.
380 points
2 months ago
Only rule if you want to be in squad:
- you gotta be white
/s
128 points
2 months ago
I actually bet that they'd have one token poc, vigilante border groups frequently do.
102 points
2 months ago
I will sacrifice myself as tribute and wear a tiny tracker on myself so everyone will know where the group is at all times.
28 points
2 months ago
Huh, I wonder why this dude's beacon has been in the same spot in the middle of the desert for 3 months. Probably just taking a nap
39 points
2 months ago*
Well, they'll want at least one Spanish speaker to taunt their victims. What, do you expect them to learn Spanish?
23 points
2 months ago
They barely speak English....
(I don't mean the migrants.)
204 points
2 months ago
The first rule of white club is you do not talk about white club.
171 points
2 months ago
You legit do not need the sarcasm-signal here.
62 points
2 months ago
They’re proposing the creation of Brown Shirts… again. These GQP politicians are Nazis.
1k points
2 months ago
Oddly enough, the second amendment was added to the constitution, in large part, to ensure southern states, S Carolina in particular, that the federal government wouldn't interfere with armed 'militia' who hunted escaped slaves. Here we go around again.
337 points
2 months ago
I thought it was so the states could form militias to protect them from British long enough for the actual army to arrive?
604 points
2 months ago
It was because the early US didn't have a standing army at all, so the "actual army" would have literally just been the militias themselves.
157 points
2 months ago
Or anything close to full time police, closest were individual sheiffs or constables
196 points
2 months ago
There's been a lot of writing by historians, arguing that what you just described - sheriffs and others working for counties - were "the law", and that the police force grew out of the groups hunting slaves, who primarily protected the 'property rights' of the wealthy and powerful. I've read some convincing arguments in support of that theory, although I haven't yet come across any counterarguments, which I'm sure have been made.
58 points
2 months ago
https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/
This has a very basic outline of some policing origins. The south had slave patrols that definitely acted similarly to early police forces in the south. However, northern urban areas developed public police forces that are more similar to current American policing without any relationship to slavery. In the simplest terms, it could be argued that public police forces were created by private industry transferring their protection costs to the public. Of course that is an overly simply argument. But the people who say American police force evolved from slave patrols are taking a very narrow view. It isn’t 100 percent wrong because of similarities between early southern slave patrols and post-Bellum south police forces, but that it is very small fraction of the evil evolution of policing in the United States.
102 points
2 months ago*
[removed]
92 points
2 months ago
The origins of police in the US are to protect capital.
27 points
2 months ago
Yes, that's what I was expanding on.
42 points
2 months ago
Norway has a tiny army with a large conscript and reservist force that gets activated in case of invasion. The reservists have their service weapon at their house. Except they have now removed the firing pins. Because people would somehow end up using them to shoot wives and neighbors with.
666 points
2 months ago
Literally party loyalists that provide "security" in the name of the USA. Let's call them something like the Southern Security, SS for short.
Won't be long until this group is invited to also provide security at party neetings/rallies...
182 points
2 months ago
These ᛋᛋ might come in handy for your future discussions on the topic
181 points
2 months ago
Isn't that convenient, everyone who wants to join these death squads immigration mercenaries already have these symbols tattooed onto their bodies!
50 points
2 months ago
Ooh those guys would get their dicks real hard for lightning bolt S's
77 points
2 months ago
Maybe they can differentiate themselves by wearing brown shirts. Is Hugo Boss available for a uniform order?
282 points
2 months ago
Don‘t worry it‘s just an armed and well trained militia, just like the constitution intended /s
167 points
2 months ago
You're safe so long as you're an American citizen...and white. Just like the constitution intended!
67 points
2 months ago
But if one of them accidentally kills a white guy, he'll get a pass. I mean, I doubt the rules say they have immunity unless they kill a white guy. And we all know, accidents happen.
71 points
2 months ago
We'll need to verify whether the white guy was woke or not. Killing wokes makes it heroic. Killing asleeps make it a tragedy caused by the wokes.
620 points
2 months ago
They’re all talk. They think this is going to be picking on scared migrant farmers and their wives and kids, but the second one of these idiot vigilantes is kidnapped off of patrol by the cartels, tortured, killed and left out there, none of these “tough guys” will ever volunteer to go out there again. It fun fir them to talk tough, but when shit gets that real they’ll be the first to bounce.
831 points
2 months ago
They'll also target Latino people who are American citizens because they "look like migrants." And they will be immune from prosecution for killing the third generation father of three because "illegal immigration."
159 points
2 months ago
this would be my main concern. they aren't going to be out in the desert catching people. they'll just be harassing citizens.
106 points
2 months ago
Have you ever been to the desert? It's fuckin hot out there. They'll hunt their neighbors patrol the neighborhood in their oversized trucks with the a/c blasting, thank you very much.
349 points
2 months ago
Yet will wonder why their favorite restaurant/hotel/construction contractor/landscaping company or whatever other business they depend on that openly functions only with undocumented labor is closing or going out of business.
Anyone who’s worked in those industries knows the American system would collapse without undocumented and migrant labor. Yet the GOP seems completely disinterested in punishing these employers, which is actually the root of the issue. Notice how the meat packing plants, mega farms, or Trump’s hotels never seem to get busted for that?
170 points
2 months ago
I’ve heard they work the shit out of undocumented workers until they strike or refuse to work anymore and then they call ICE on them. They’re not even stopping illegal immigration, they’re just protecting employers that hire illegal immigrants as workers.
19 points
2 months ago
Yes, it's always about the money. They talk out of both sides of their mouths. They rally up the hateful people using xenophobia, but support businesses who use their labor, below minimum wage in horrible conditions. It helps to keep control over them and drives down wages across the board. They don't punish the companies that do this, preferring instead to punish the workers when they ask for too much.
93 points
2 months ago
Yet will wonder why their favorite restaurant/hotel/construction contractor/landscaping company or whatever other business they depend on that openly functions only with undocumented labor is closing or going out of business.
No they won't. It will just be "Bidens fault" or whatever democrat is in office. If there isn't a democrat in office then they'll blame Biden having done something in the past.
The consequences of their actions are never bad, it's always "someone else" who ruined it. :/
236 points
2 months ago
People seem to forget that this experiment has already been tried and failed a decade ago. In 2011 Alabama cracked down on illegal immigration and drove migrant workers out and it wound up costing the state over 11 billion https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alabama-immigration-economy/alabama-immigration-crackdown-costs-state-up-to-11-bln-study-idUKTRE8101JJ20120201 Crops were rotting in the fields because there was no one to pick them, restaurants and hotels shuttered due to no staff. The idea that Americans will take back jobs from migrants is laughable because there’s no way they are going to do back breaking labor for low wages. You’re correct when you say the system would collapse without immigrants because it already did a decade ago, and it will again if Texas goes through with their proposal letting them forcefully hunt and drive out migrants.
103 points
2 months ago
That's why they're getting rid of child labor protections.
36 points
2 months ago
So what you are saying is we aren't gonna have to say "except Texas" for all the statistics about how all red states are poorer than blue states
25 points
2 months ago
Plenty of studies show the same thing in Texas. Here is just one.
“If all undocumented workers were deported, Texas would lose more than $41.9 billion in direct employment compensation, defined as pretax salary and wage earnings. The total lost would be $70.3 billion, which represents a reduction of 7.7% in state employment compensation."
If they really wanted to stop illegal immigrants a much cheaper solution would be to go after the companies that hire them. Of course that will never happen.
41 points
2 months ago
I fear you are right. We are backsliding so far as a society, nothing these fascists do would surprise me at this point. My one hope is that the pendulum has swung so far right we will get a correction in the next 5 years.
46 points
2 months ago
Yeah that gets a bit lost in the conversation here....MAGA types who would want to be on this vigilante squad would in reality just go after "brown people" in general. Hell, they'd just have to hear someone speaking Spanish and they'd bust heads regardless of whether that person was an illegal migrant or not. Racists gonna racist.
15 points
2 months ago
And they will be immune from prosecution for killing the third generation father of three because "illegal immigration."
10th generation. Some interloper from another State is going to kill someone whose family was in Texas since before it became a State.
65 points
2 months ago
Honestly this stance is everything. Like oh like toddlers they will just tire themselves out. These fuckin psychos will keep going. Endless shit birds to file in. Can't be letting shit like this slide. That's why we are in predicaments like this one.
139 points
2 months ago
Never underestimate the volume of stupid MAGA rednecks available for the task. Much as there appears to be a never ending stream of money flowing from the not-so-bright Trump sycophants, so there seems to be a never ending stream of right-wing nationalist nut-jobs itching to shoot somebody with the firearms they have spent their life savings on.
48 points
2 months ago
Somehow this scenario doesn't make me feel better about any of it.
24 points
2 months ago
It shouldn’t make anyone feel better. It’s a horrible idea all the way around with no good outcome.
52 points
2 months ago
Coyotes and human trafficking are big business for the cartels, vigilantes start interfering with that the border is going to get a lot more violent. Its not like the Mexican government would do anything about it, so it will just mean more problems for U.S. border towns.
Then Republicans will be crying about the problem they created. A better solution is to look at U.S. foriegn and domestic policy that is negatively affecting Central and South American economies and change it.
3.6k points
2 months ago
So they will just hunt brown people even if they are actually citizens? Yeah, what could go wrong?
1.2k points
2 months ago
It won't just be brown people. It will be anyone that looks different from them or has an accent.
469 points
2 months ago
Stupid fuckers forget that they have accents too
242 points
2 months ago
Doesn't matter, because they're the ones organizing it. They don't care about fairness or equality.
The goal is for this to bind the outgroup, not the ingroup, and protect the ingroup, but not the outgroup.
49 points
2 months ago
I really fucking wish people would stop going "but the hypocrisy"
y'all that's in fact the point. It is a positive to them.
72 points
2 months ago
Honestly, it could just be anyone. They are immune.
59 points
2 months ago
"We didn't realize it was a Democrat rally. Oppsies, our bad. Oh look, our party just went up 10 points here. What a coincidence."
37 points
2 months ago
Everyone knows election day is the busiest day of the year for illegal immigration! That’s why we need to patrol all polling sites.
240 points
2 months ago
So they will just hunt brown people even if they are actually citizens? Yeah, what could go wrong?
This has been happening in Texas more and more where you see stories of American citizens who are being stopped by 'border patrol' or local law enforcement and forced to prove they are legal residents.
Now they want to increase it.
181 points
2 months ago
Not just increase it, but give a group full immunity to do whatever they want to anyone they declare to be an illegal immigrant. So a third generation father of three who happens to be a Latino living in Texas could be killed and they wouldn't face any charges because "they were just fighting illegal immigration."
107 points
2 months ago
Think about what they are going to do to the kids - immunity will be every child molesters dream
11 points
2 months ago
I'm at the point where I think every single GOP policy is just to make kid fucking legal. They are so obsessed with it at every possible turn, it's so obvious.
55 points
2 months ago
I give it about five days before they just start straight up robbing people.
37 points
2 months ago
That's generous
32 points
2 months ago
I would be surprised if they wait that long
26 points
2 months ago
I’d be surprised if they just stuck to robbery.
37 points
2 months ago
Far worse than that. US citizens have been deported as well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_Americans_from_the_United_States
378 points
2 months ago
They're the "let god sort it out" kind.
156 points
2 months ago
They won’t be the first time they “accidentally” try this on an armed US citizen and one of these vigilantes eats a bullet. Suddenly big daddy Abbott will be the one sorting it out.
18 points
2 months ago
Probably have the shooting treated as it would with police. If the person was shooting in self defense all is good and the matter gets dropped...though I wonder if it'll be like police where they then harass the person until the next shooting
47 points
2 months ago
So how's that work? The Bible never mentions anything about The US or Mexico. Yahweh appears to be on immigrants side with the whole demanding the Israelites to take over the land of milk and honey
110 points
2 months ago
They'll start with the brown people. Do we call them Nazis now?
51 points
2 months ago
Always has been
139 points
2 months ago
You’re in Florida, we can both confirm that you’ll never see Gov. Ron DeSantis corralling up illegal Cubans in Florida or hiring snipers to pick them off on our shores….they vote Republican! 🤣
42 points
2 months ago
On the contrary he wants more to come in. The fear mongering Cubans get that democrats will somehow turn the USA into Cuba is an easy way to get republican votes.
31 points
2 months ago
It’s so embarrassingly stupid, I don’t know how the look in the mirror.
That’s right up there with the republicans being fiscally conservative.
14 points
2 months ago
I have a feeling the only reason most anyone votes Republican is because they are embarrassingly stupid.
31 points
2 months ago
If they wanted to be Americans, they wouldn't have been born brown, duh.
Obligatory /s bc it's still Reddit.
3.5k points
2 months ago
I'm surprised that nobody has said this yet, but an armed paramilitary group running around is dangerous for other reasons. It's a ready paramilitary force which can be used for anything its leaders wish: voter intimidation, intimidation of political opponents, thuggery in general both political and literal.
When the next Jan 6 comes, these groups will not just be standing down and standing by.
1.2k points
2 months ago
I think that’s the plan.
437 points
2 months ago
We already saw them implement paramilitary against protesters and people on their own property during the BLM marches following the George Floyd incident.
All Americans still have a clear image of police firing pepper balls into traffic and injuring a man trying to protect his pregnant wife. Some of those Americans were in favor. Some very loud, absurd, aging, evil, regressive and motivated fascists.
121 points
2 months ago
That's why Kyle Rittenhouse getting off was so important to them. They needed that gigantic nationally televised precedent, that as long as they follow that script, they can get away with killing people.
146 points
2 months ago
Haven’t there been some “Minute Men” type groups patrolling AZ/NM/TX borders for several years with quiet support from conservative lawmakers? They’re just supporting it less quietly now?
101 points
2 months ago
Yup which is concerning. They got their peepees slapped by the courts in the mid 2000s. They feel comfortable starting shit again.
31 points
2 months ago
They’re spearheaded by racist, fascist, kkk, nazi bastards. That tells you everything you need to know
177 points
2 months ago
Yeah dude this is the same reason DeSantis is trying to create his own state army.
70 points
2 months ago
They realized that they won't fair well in a secession and that the real military is sworn to the constitution, not the president, and certainly not some states governor. So this is a plan to get us to find their own private dictator army, like you see in other countries.
82 points
2 months ago
What I'm hearing you say is there needs to be a paramilitary force focused on protecting minorities and teaching them safe firearm handling.
Y'know, since we're basically back to the days of the black Panthers already.
7k points
2 months ago
Literal brownshirts "hunting" human beings without the ability to prosecute them for the murder, rape or maiming of others.
Tell me again that Republicans aren't Nazis.
1.5k points
2 months ago
Tell me again that Republicans aren't Nazis.
They're trying extremely hard to be Nazis and that's not an over-exaggeration.
They are recreating the policies that lead to WWII.
When you compare what they are trying to do, to what Hilter did before WWII, it's almost identical.
It's clear that they want tensions to boil over and start a second civil war.
600 points
2 months ago
Whereas we see the Nazis as a cautionary tale of what to not do, they see them as a cautionary tale of what to do better next time.
52 points
2 months ago
Well… when the Nazi’s modeled their policies after the Jim Crow south…
74 points
2 months ago
I think you woefully overestimate southern education standards. There's a reason none of these people have ever even heard the phrase "those that forget history are doomed to repeat it."
Their views on slavery basically boil down to "my great great grandfather was a really swell guy, and anyone he owned probably wanted to be there."
24 points
2 months ago
What’s even more fucked is their grandpappy probably wasn’t part of the top 5% of plantation slave owners. More likely, their grandpappy was called a peckerwood and was a share cropper with a few more civi liberties than slaves, but still in a perpetual state generational poverty.
12 points
2 months ago
Right. Like they are now, hero worshipping billionaires, and wanting to keep the systems in place that created them, because they think that means it will be their turns to be billionaires one day.
625 points
2 months ago
And look how things turned out for the brownshirts. Fascists slowly eliminate their own as they will never ever be fascist enough. They always fancy themselves as the only “in group.”
340 points
2 months ago
MTG has already started the push to remove the less fascist from the Republican Party.
204 points
2 months ago
And already wanted to drone strike Mexico.
That was from only a week+ ago too. They’re escalating wildly now.
99 points
2 months ago
Because they know they're on the verge. Either of indefinite power, or dust.
122 points
2 months ago
A good way to stop them is to encourage their infighting before they gain complete control of things. I like to ask which denomination of Christianity is the real one, or in this case we could try: how tall does a man need to be to join the vigilante group?
53 points
2 months ago
Or if they form murder squads designate them ad a terrorist organization and prosecute them as such
72 points
2 months ago
Yeah but that can take years or even decades without an outside force accelerating the process (see: WWII) and those years are absolute hell for everyone at some point.
37 points
2 months ago
These people aren't above creating an accellerant that would move stuff along. History is riddled withpeople that were power-hungry and did awful things to grab that power.
Think about the mood in the US, pre 9/11 and then think about all the stuff that happened after; Mass Surveillance, two Wars that were unjustified, a bigger government (DHS), Guantanimo Bay, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, etc.
55 points
2 months ago
Are the fascist…er, I mean red states having a competition to see which one can pass the most horrible laws? Florida has the lead, but Texas is trying to close the gap.
1.6k points
2 months ago
“This dangerous, radical, and unconstitutional proposal which empowers border vigilantes to hunt migrants and racially profile Latinos is going to result in the death of innocent people,” Victoria Neave Criado, the Democratic chair of Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said in a statement last week. “MALC is going to do everything in our power to kill this legislation just as Latino State Representatives for the past 5 decades have fought against Klan-like proposals.”
805 points
2 months ago*
201 points
2 months ago
Ahhh but it was a "$4bn endeavor". There's the rub. That money went to someone.
64 points
2 months ago
Mostly rent to rich landowners, also a shit ton of wages to support the operation.
68 points
2 months ago
Seriously, how in good fuck does sending 5k troops to the border to dump out water jugs and sleep packed in semi-trucks come to $4 BILLION?
I mean, we know it doesn’t and that most of that money is getting docked in Seychelles, but it’s alarming that they’re comfortable moving that much under the guise of an “operation” that has only resulted in several dead enlisted Americans. Like 3 times the amount in Benghazi. For no fucking reason whatsoever outside of Greg Abbott’s re-election and lining oligarch pockets.
We’d better get to the bottom of that one guy’s laptop, tho!!
238 points
2 months ago
“Suicides”
You wanna bet money none of those were ever investigated and were instead just immediately labeled?
310 points
2 months ago
The living conditions for the National Guard members during operation lone star were/are terrible think semi trailers with bunk beds on either side for months.
So a guard member gets called for duty and stationed on the border for months at a lower pay rate than their civilian job.
They weren't allowed to do much of anything due to federal law so miles away from the border patrolling wealthy ranch owners land all day long.
Many guard members filed a lawsuit and the suicides are mentioned due to the poor living conditions and pointless deployment. From what I recall
It's a political show that Texans foot the bill for.
1.2k points
2 months ago
They're called Death Squads
Every fascist has them
193 points
2 months ago
Are they going to wear white hoods or red MAGA hats?
75 points
2 months ago
Probably a mix of American and Confederate flags this time.
38 points
2 months ago
They went for blue shirts and brown pants this time, guess the Best Buy look was for them. https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/is-patriot-front-march-in-boston-sign-of-new-kkk/
367 points
2 months ago
That’s what Jesus would do. /s
152 points
2 months ago
They really are so disconnected from the essence of the thing they thump people with so hard. Jesus had a name for the snakes and vipers who burdened people with shame, extra guilt, derision because they are "unclean" people. Pharasees. Good Ole' Pharasees.
23 points
2 months ago
The real GOP
37 points
2 months ago
They just use the Bible as an excuse. If religion wasn't a thing they'd use some other excuse, like saying migrants bring diseases or are biologically predisposed to violence. (Examples from the pet world).
336 points
2 months ago
Of course Republicans would propose hit squads that are above the law... America is fucked
96 points
2 months ago
So, are they also discussing a vigilante group of electricians to fix their grid? How about some caped crusaders with insulin syringes to combat the diabetes epidemic in Texas? At least have them hand out condoms in front of high schools to lower the incredibly high teenage birth rate... I mean, their parked there already anyways.
238 points
2 months ago
"The group would be comprised of law enforcement officers and civilians under the direction of a governor-selected chief. The members of the group would also be extended immunity from criminal prosecution relating to their actions on the border. They will be directed to "arrest, detain, and deter individuals crossing the border illegally, including with the use of non-deadly force."
Watch one or some of them will have ties to some pro-White supremacy group. We will not be surprised at all.
125 points
2 months ago
Also, the "non-deadly force" bit would likely be quickly violated with no consequences. Or if one of these group members was actually prosecuted for killing a person, the right would rally behind him claiming "it's dangerous out there. They need to be able to kill these dangerous migrants with impunity or else they can't do their job."
They'll walk right up to the line and push the Overton window until they can cross the line with impunity.
56 points
2 months ago*
Also, the "non-deadly force" bit would likely be quickly violated with no consequences.
It's super easy. There's a couple ways:
1) Claim that the person was "reaching for their waistband".
2) Harass someone until they "resist", where "resist" is defined as pretty much any action someone could take. Vigilante grabs you for no reason? Better not pull back your body at all, even as a reflex. Vigilante swings a nightstick at you? Better not raise your arm to block, or you're resisting. Half a dozen vigilantes are on top of you, putting their full body weight onto your back and neck? Better not have any convulsions from literally being suffocated to death.
3) Do literally anything or nothing, if the cops don't keep video footage or delete footage they have. It'll be their word against no one elses, because you'll be a corpse and can't even contradict them.
It's standard cop shit. Given that this will be an entirely new agency headed up by Abbott's hand picked goon and staffed from the ground up by people who are probably all going to be the absolute worst sorts of people, it's not even going to have the occasional decent person who might keep the worst impulses in check.
44 points
2 months ago
He continued: “Veterans On Patrol is Authorized to perform our duties by our Heavenly Father and only HIS LAW is ours to fulfill”.
Not necessarily pro white supremacy, but still nuttier than squirrel turds
602 points
2 months ago
We are watching the creation of the modern day Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS).
389 points
2 months ago
Some people would claim this is hyperbolic but the truth is we are living the answer to the question of now the Nazis took over Germany and why didn't anyone stop them.
308 points
2 months ago*
[deleted]
30 points
2 months ago
[deleted]
19 points
2 months ago
Yep.
If you yourself classify as a minority, now is 100% the time to take firearms courses and arm up. These parasites want to deprive you of your right to literally live.
Don't give them that opportunity.
40 points
2 months ago
100% this.
Turns out the answer is because the Nazis are really good at convincing the middle ground that they're not really Nazis until it's too late
489 points
2 months ago
Vigilante groups hunting brown and black people? That’ll end well, great job Texass.
84 points
2 months ago
They just need a good nickname. Perhaps one that abbreviates to one letter repeated three times. Unfortunately, I Kan't Konceive of a Klassy enough nickname.
63 points
2 months ago
Yeah, because there are no brown or black people in southern Texas. These people have no clue what they would be getting into.
90 points
2 months ago
Oh I think they’d know exactly what they’re getting into…
44 points
2 months ago
Looking forward to them realizing the people they are hunting are shooting back.
43 points
2 months ago
[deleted]
27 points
2 months ago
Not immunity from bullets though. You give a blanket right to kill, they’ll defend themselves.
This is literally why the 2nd Amendment exists which is irony that they completely miss.
63 points
2 months ago
The pro-life facade dropped real fast.
Texas has made it clear it doesn’t value women’s, LGBTQ, or non-white lives.
Instead if you cross them they hunt you like an animal.
Welcome to the GOP vision for America!
117 points
2 months ago
Foreshadowing how this will turn out
This isn't the first time the state has tried to create a border protection force beyond the federal US Customs and Border Protection agency. In 2021 Republican Governor Greg Abbott initiated "Operation Lone Star" that placed National Guard troops at the border. However, the $4bn endeavor was met with numerous controversies, including the deaths of several National Guard members, some to suicide, and allegations of human rights violations that resulted in a Justice Department investigation.
93 points
2 months ago
"Can we have the KKK again, pretty please?"
Goddammit, Texas, why are you like this...
24 points
2 months ago
Actually the KKK in most southern states are still active and terrorizing innocent people, you just don’t hear about it due to it being so heavily segregated and institutionalized within these areas that it rarely leaves their bubble. Disgusting.
84 points
2 months ago
Oh this sounds like a totally great idea that couldn’t possibly turn into an absolute nightmare
15 points
2 months ago
... as if that isn't their hope 😶
893 points
2 months ago
What did you expect? ‘Welcome, sonny’? ‘Make yourself at home’? ‘Marry my daughter’? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
136 points
2 months ago
Wait until they secede and get conquered by the ruthless drug cartel gangs of Mexico. Then they'll become the lowest "caste" of Watos in the newly formed country.
86 points
2 months ago
And then promptly conquered by the US as a unrestricted enemy at our borders with oil. The only net result would be that Texans would lose their citizenship and then have to work to regain it after we reconquer Texas.
So why not skip the middleman and just remove voting rights for Texas? They can get back in the queue after Puerto Rico, DC, and Guam.
66 points
2 months ago
Leave them alone long enough, and they'll gradually remove their own voting rights.
114 points
2 months ago
Unexpected Gene Wilder quote!
14 points
2 months ago
An unscripted one at that. The man was gold.
116 points
2 months ago
So they want death squads. What a shithole state.
40 points
2 months ago
I actually bailed from Texas to Central Mexico three years ago, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm glad that my homies don't pay much attention to border news. But even if they knew about this bullshit, there'd only be some good-natured teasing. There's that much love and acceptance down here.
144 points
2 months ago
They can't make them immune from federal charges.
82 points
2 months ago
If previous Republican bills are any indication, they'll try. There was a recent bill in Missouri that banned the police from working with federal agents to enforce federal gun control laws.
I could see this expanding to Republican led states banning federal agents from operating in their states without the express approval of the Republicans in charge. Obviously, this would be unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court might actually rule that states can deny federal officials' law enforcement rights in their states.
78 points
2 months ago
[removed]
40 points
2 months ago
Well, you have to be a member of their special club first. Only they get to be lawless, everyone else needs to follow law and order.
34 points
2 months ago
[removed]
16 points
2 months ago
The whack-a-nazi act: any time a US representative presents a bill that strips someone of their rights, those rights are removed from the bill's backers prior to enforcement.
Sorry Ted, your last name sounded Hispanic, time to detain!
27 points
2 months ago
Do republicans ever stop for a second and wonder if they are actually the bad guy? I guess that's something bad guys don't do.
17 points
2 months ago
Oh, they know they're evil and they don't care.
27 points
2 months ago
They are literally creating modern-day Slave Catchers like those from the pre civil war period. People who can enter communities of mainly POC demanding their "papers" and if they don't have any dragging them screaming into vans to be deported. With the obvious catch being even if everyone starts carrying immigration papers it creates a bounty system where you just "lose" those documents when they are given, and now you have another "illegal" to deport. Seriously, it's the plot of 12 years a Slave.
100 points
2 months ago
So basically a genocide squad
33 points
2 months ago
Huh
Sounds like a certain group who’s name starts with an N and ends in azi
24 points
2 months ago
The hypocrisy of Texas.
Fun fact, New Mexico’s cannabis sales are great because Texans keep coming over the border to buy cannabis and illegally take it back.
21 points
2 months ago
It was only a matter of time before the GOP made a play at making it legal to kill the brown people.
44 points
2 months ago
I wonder how they'd feel about blacks and latinos forming armed vigilante groups - to keep whites out - in their communities?
30 points
2 months ago
Ask the Black Panthers how it went. Read about the Mulford act and COINTELPRO. Here is a hint, it did not go well. Bottom line, 2nd amendment right are, as far as the GOP is concerned, reserved for white, christians republicans ONLY.
17 points
2 months ago
When the republicans are referring to the “good old days” they don’t mean the 1950s, they mean the 1850s.
40 points
2 months ago
Oh cool. Fucking assassins. Totally not a psychopathic, utterly horrifying idea.
16 points
2 months ago
What could possibly go wrong?
17 points
2 months ago
If they aren't doing anything wrong why do they need immunity from prosecution exactly?
15 points
2 months ago
Perfectly on brand for the self-proclaimed "pro-life party" 🤦♂️
28 points
2 months ago
The Feds will arrest and prosecute these people. F* around and find out what a federal prison is like.
31 points
2 months ago*
Oh goody, we’ve entered the racist death squad phase of fascism.
13 points
2 months ago
That’s like giving an arsonist a can of gas, matches, and asking him to start a bonfire at the lumber mill.
11 points
2 months ago
It’s easy to hate certain people when you dehumanize them like this. So much for being Christians.
12 points
2 months ago
a lynch mob?
10 points
2 months ago
That's cute. Some Texans really belive that they're so badass and tough guys that they might be willing to take on cartels?
Good luck with that Billy Bob.
These cretinous freakazoids are just bloodthirsty fascists. And they are looking to pick a fight.
Soft ass Texas is full of soft motherfuckers.
13 points
2 months ago
peak christianity
27 points
2 months ago
Wow. Conservatives can finally live out their sick hillbilly fantasy of legally murdering someone with their gun.
25 points
2 months ago
Will these vigilantes be mass-murderers? Of course they will be. But you know what else they'll be? Serial rapists.
Women and children will be raped en masse by a bunch of psychotic vigilantes who are immune to prosecution. Tons of Texans know this and consider it to be an unspoken bonus. Tons of Texans don't know this because they are too stupid to consider it, but they'll happily support a bill that punishes brown people and upsets liberals.
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