DPS Accountability

 

Since 2014, the Texas Legislature has authorized additional funds for the Department of Public Safety (DPS) for a surge presence in counties along the Texas border—an average of $800 million per biennium or $2.4B.

Our border communities are uniformly safe places to live and work. That was before the DPS surge. The DPS has no federal immigration enforcement authority. Yet residents report that the DPS is the same as the CBP. This makes residents more fearful as they try to live and work in a militarized environment.

There are already 3,000 Border Patrol boots on the ground along our Texas border.

Further, the DPS provides very little accountability or effectiveness of the additional $400 million dollars per year in our border communities. Where are the performance measures?

Given that the continued surge is harmful to feelings of goodwill between residents and law enforcement. Further, that there are historically inadequate performance measures tied to these funds.

These DPS funds would be better used to provide relief to border communities which have been impacted by the COVID-19 and victimized by Trump Administration policies.