Chairman Flores, Vice Chairman Parker, and honorable members of the committee,
My name is Ammon Blair, and I am a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I respectfully submit this written testimony in full support of Senate Bill 1320. I bring 22 years of military experience and extensive border security expertise from my service in the U.S. Army and U.S. Border Patrol. My roles have included serving as an Infantry Officer in Operation Lone Star, as a Collateral Intelligence Agent, and as a Marine Border Patrol Agent. Throughout my career, I have witnessed firsthand the threats posed by the Mexican cartels and weaponized mass migration.
This legislation is a timely and necessary step toward confronting an evolving and deeply rooted national security crisis—one that threatens not only the economic lifeblood of our state but the very integrity of our territory, institutions, and sovereignty. The theft of oil and gas from the Permian Basin and other production zones is not a local crime of opportunity. It is the domestic manifestation of transnational insurgency, and it is being orchestrated by designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations operating on U.S. soil (U.S. Department of State, 2025).