By Editorial Board
El Paso Times
A major state agency is proposing a massive increase in spending despite providing little if any evidence that its current spending is effective or needed. That scenario would normally bring accusations of bloated government from Texas’ conservative leadership.
But not when the subject is border security.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is proposing a 39 percent increase in border security spending for the next biennium. That comes on top of a doubling in border security spending approved in the 2015 legislative session.
If the Legislature approves the increase in spending next year – and history suggests that it will – state spending on border security will have grown from $120 million in 2010 to $1 billion.
And it’s entirely unclear what Texas is getting for all that money, other than a shift in where DPS troopers are writing traffic warnings and citations.
The idea of the border as a war zone has been popular in Republican circles for years, despite repeated evidence that illegal immigration is on the decline and border communities have much lower crime rates than comparable communities across the country.
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