Granger Gone, Good for Border Security
Kay Granger's retirement may be the end of an era–– and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
(Photo attribution, C-Span 2; 2024 Hearing Defense Budget Request)
Congresswoman Kay Granger, 80, who represents most of Fort Worth in the United States House of Representatives announced her retirement late last night.
Many Texas papers have identified this as the “end of an era”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram longingly referred to Granger as someone “who go [sic] things done”. Indeed, Granger did “go” things done; she helped deliver tax cuts and countless deregulation bills while in Congress.
However, her departure also marks the end of yet another Texas Republican with an abysmal record on immigration. Granger was first elected to Congress in 1997 and has consistently been wishy-washy on immigration and border security.
Granger has repeatedly voted to increase the number of visas for foreign workers and their families, and to give extensions to illegal immigrants residing in the country so that they can seek citizenship.
Although the Congresswoman consistently voted for border wall funding when other officials introduced the bill, when Granger was put in charge of the 2014 congressional immigration working committee, her policy recommendations conspicuously missed the one policy most likely to reduce illegal immigration. Likewise, her recommendations missed other highly effective policies like mandatory E-Verify which has been a smashing success at preventing and deterring the employment of illegal aliens in states like Alabama and Florida.
Granger’s working committee was rightly criticized by both the Heritage Foundation and then-Senator Jeff Sessions. Heritage criticized Granger’s recommendations for being based on border security strategies that were already proven ineffective and Sessions succinctly noted, “it is curious that the proposal makes no mention of the needs of Americans.”
Indeed, Sessions was right about Granger’s proposals and so many Texas Republicans–– there was/is a consistent lack of concern for Americans and Texans alike.
Texas public schools are overwhelmed with illegal alien children, fentanyl is being smuggled across the Texas border with Mexico, Texas has become home to a sex-trafficking super highway (I-20), and the wages of Texas’s working class are being suppressed by an endless stream of cheap and illegal foreign labor. Yet, our elected leaders are concerned with whether to extend the visa process for illegal immigrants.
State Representative Nate Schatzline responded to Granger’s retirement announcement with the eyes emoji. Although Schatzline’s emoticon use is open to interpretation–– one should hope this is a signal of his intent to run for Granger’s seat.
Cowtown Caller contacted Schatzline for an explanation of his tweet and to see if it should be interpreted as a signal of his intent to run. The representative responded with this quote provided here in full;
"We need a conservative to run in that race that's going to be committed to cutting federal spending and fighting for our conservative values. We need someone who is more concerned with securing our border and cleaning up our own streets than sending money to Ukraine. We need an America first candidate who has the fortitude to stand up to the swamp! I have been overwhelmed and honored at the amount of people that have reached out to see if I would be willing to run. However, right now I'm hyper focused on the special session and making sure our historic border bills, ban on Covid vaccine mandates, education freedom, and education funding make it across the finish line."
Schatzline’s Texas House district overlaps with Granger’s U.S. House district, and although Schatzline was only recently elected, he has already distinguished himself as a conservative and a hardliner on border security.
Schatzline has recently led a charge to make genetic testing a condition of family asylum claims made at that border because there have been numerous cases of unrelated aliens claiming to be families to bolster their case for asylum.
While the sentiments in Schatzline’s tweet may not be clear, mine are. Run Nate! Run!
Note: An earlier version of this story did not include a statement from Representative Schatzline. Since publication a statement was received and the story was updated accordingly. Update Time 8:45 P.M. CST.