Texas Issues Arrest Warrants For Democratic Lawmakers Who Fled to Avoid Redistricting Vote

Photo by Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via AP.

The Texas House of Representatives voted on Monday to compel more than 50 Democratic Party lawmakers to return to the body in order to vote on a highly controversial redistricting effort to try and net the national Republican Party 5 more seats in Congress. The House officially empowered Texas state troopers and the House’s sergeant-at-arms to track down the members and arrest them, but they would not face any kind of charges under the order.

House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) announced he would sign the arrest warrants after the vote on Monday, which are only valid inside Texas’s border – making them purely symbolic as the lawmakers have all fled the state.  Democrats are trying to delay the vote by not allowing the GOP-controlled body to have a quorum — a minimum number of members present in order to conduct official business.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the absent Democrats.

“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans by fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty,” Abbott’s office said in a statement, adding:

Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber. To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans. This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol.

The move by Texas Republicans, at Trump’s urging, to further gerrymander Texas’s Congressional map has been widely condemned on both sides of the aisle and led to threats of retaliation from Democrat-led states like New York and California.

Watch the clip above.