HOUSTON (CN) — A month after the killing of 12-year-old Houston girl Jocelyn Nungaray, politicians are invoking her name to push for new and tougher immigration restrictions.
A group of Texas politicians and business leaders, led by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, spoke Friday at a press conference in support of the Justice for Jocelyn Act. Joined by Nungaray's parents, the news conference was held in front of the nonprofit Crime Stoppers' Houston headquarters.
Alexis Nungaray, Jocelyn’s mother, read a prepared statement in support of the legislation before introducing Senator Cruz. Cruz then led the speakers in blaming the Biden administration’s policies for the murder while also calling for bipartisan support for his legislation.
Two suspects in Nungaray's killing, who have been in custody for several weeks under separate $10 million bonds, immigrated to the U.S. illegally from Venezuela. Both men were held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they entered near El Paso but were ultimately released under the Alternatives to Detention program, with officials ordering them to appear in court in the future.
The Justice for Jocelyn Act would severely limit the Alternatives to Detention program. Under the law, the Department of Homeland Security could only release migrants if its secretary had " exercised and exhausted all reasonable efforts to hold aliens in detention," including because all available detention beds had been filled.
If someone was released under the program, the bill would also mandate that released individuals be subject to continuous GPS monitoring and a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. Failure to comply would result in deportation.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg also spoke at the news conference. Although a Democrat, she recently cowrote an op-ed with Cruz calling for stricter treatment of migrants.
Just as the pair did in their op-ed, Ogg cited the 1993 Houston slayings of high-schoolers Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña — another infamous Houston case. As the former Texas Solicitor General, Cruz would go on to argue for the death penalty in that case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007.
Although both cases involved accused migrants, studies have consistently debunked any supposed link between crime and immigration. The Department of Justice in 2020, for example, concluded that "undocumented immigrants had substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses."
“I’m here,” Ogg told the audience, “not as a partisan but as the top law enforcement official in Harris County, to support the Justice for Jocelyn Act and to thank my elected colleagues, Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Troy Nehls, for filing the Justice for Jocelyn bill. Because it will make us safer, and because crime is bigger than partisanship.”
In contrast to her calm tone, Congressman Nehls spoke in a fiery tone about current DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Citing the contested recent election in Venezuela, Nehls blamed president Francisco Maduro for conditions in the country, which have led many Venezuelans to migrate to the United States. He hammered on right-wing talking points, making references to migrant caravans. He also echoed remarks from Trump’s 2015 campaign announcement speech, in which then-candidate Trump infamously claimed that “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.”
In the weeks since the murder, other officials and business leaders in Texas and beyond have also voiced their support for the Justice for Jocelyn Act.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the famous Houston businessman behind Gallery Furniture, also spoke at the press conference. Governor Greg Abbott likewise released a statement Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, in support of Cruz’s legislation. And Donald Trump indirectly invoked Jocelyn’s death — though not by name — in the June presidential debate.
Not every official has been so supportive of Cruz’s efforts. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a progressive Democrat, criticized Cruz and other Republicans for tying the crime to the suspects’ immigrant status back in June.
As with Trump's 2015 announcement, Cruz’s Friday press conference today played on similar longstanding myths surrounding immigration and crime. Judge Hidalgo, on the other hand, has repeatedly stressed that there is no link between immigration and criminality.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Biden taps trio of federal court nominees August 28, 2024
