This morning, during the final day of the current session of the Texas state legislature, the Texas House was considering a bill to punish so-called “sanctuary cities.” The Democrats had been fighting the bill for hours, and there were lots of protesters in the gallery. When the protesters were loudly disruptive, the Department of Public Safety began to remove them from the gallery. (You can see video, and a more or less live blog of the events, here.)
That’s when the fun began. Apparently, state Representative Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) announced that he had called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the protesters. The Democrats apparently took this badly.
VIDEO: Lawmakers in Texas House scuffle during #SINEDIE on Monday.
BACKGROUND: https://t.co/q77vMguaXh pic.twitter.com/zlAGEaL0pB— KVUE News (@KVUE) May 29, 2017
You can see from that video that it does look like a number of other representatives sought him out on the floor. They call it a “scuffle” but it looks like a pretty calm scuffle. There were apparently some heated words, though.
Afterward, the Hispanic Democrats involved said Rinaldi had “disrespected them” and threatened them.
Rinaldi released this statement on Twitter.
A statement regarding today. pic.twitter.com/M0BcBXa43P
— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) May 29, 2017
Texas politics is never boring.
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