Texas’s “Sanctuary City” Status Leads to Lawmaker Gun Threat

Republican lawmakers seem to be losing their cool lately. Just days after a report surfaced of Montana GOP House candidate (at the time) Greg Gianforte* with assaulting a reporter who questioned him a bit too harshly about health care, a new report involving a Republican lawmaker in Texas surfaced. This time, the dust-up was over immigration.

Immigration is a hot topic in Texas. On the floor of the Texas House, a protest erupted, which caused a shouting match among the House colleagues. Protesters were demonstrating against a law signed by Governor Greg Abbott that cracks down on sanctuary cities, which offer some protections to illegal immigrants. Among the protesters was believed to be some undocumented immigrants, which prompted Representative Matt Rinaldi to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the protesters.

After announcing that he had called ICE, Rinaldi claims that Democrat Representative Ramon Romero began shouting and physically assaulting him. Colleagues had to separate both men. Rinaldi claims that another colleague, Poncho Nevarez, threatened his life by saying he would “get [Rinaldi] on the way to his car.” In reaction to that, Rinaldi apparently told Nevarez that he would “put a bullet in his head.”

Romero claims that he was reacting with anger after learning that Rinaldi had called ICE on the protesters. He says he felt that Rinaldi’s actions and words were “a personal attack on [him] as a son of Mexican immigrants.” He claims that no assault occurred because members of Rinaldi’s own party pulled him away.

You can read accounts from both sides, which unsurprisingly, do not agree, on Newsweek’s site, which has screenshots of the statements that both Rinaldi and Romero made. Whoever is wrong, whoever is right, this isn’t the behavior that we want to see from our elected officials. Get it together guys!

*Gianforte won the election, because many Montana voters had already voted by mail. He was cited for misdemeanor assault and is expected to appear in court before June 7. He faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail, a $500 fine, or both. It appears likely that Gianforte will be able to keep his elected position in Congress despite the assault charge.