The Texas House advanced several major bail reform proposals this week, including Senate Bill 9, Senate Bill 40.
The legislation represents a long-standing priority for Governor Greg Abbott, who has repeatedly called for tighter restrictions on pretrial release for individuals accused of violent crimes. Lawmakers say the effort is aimed at improving public safety by reducing the number of dangerous defendants released on bond.
SB 9, approved by the House on Tuesday on the third reading with 118-25 votes, would limit the use of cashless personal bonds for certain offenses and allow the state to appeal bail decisions, potentially keeping defendants in jail for up to 20 days during the appeal. SB 40, passed the same day with 113-30 votes, would prohibit municipalities and counties from using public funds to post bail for criminal defendants. Both measures passed with broad bipartisan support and now return to the Senate for final approval.
The most debated proposal was SJR 1, a constitutional amendment targeting certain immigrant defendants that fell short of the two-thirds support needed for final passage.
Senate Joint Resolution 1 (SJR 1), which would allow judges to deny bail in a wider range of cases — including those involving undocumented immigrants and certain legally present non-citizens — advanced past second reading in the Texas House but failed to reach the 100 votes required for final passage on third reading.
Lawmakers are expected to revisit the measure this week in a second attempt to meet the threshold.
Democratic lawmakers voiced concern over SJR 1’s potential to sweep in immigrants with protected or pending legal status. Rep. Joe Moody, while voting in favor of the resolution “I’m voting for this, but I’m not here to convince you to follow me,” he started, later warning that it could still apply to DACA recipients, victims of human trafficking, and others who should not be subject to blanket detention. “This does not include DACA. This does not include those who have been trafficked. This does not include victims of crime,” he said. “Those people would all still be captured by this SJR that’s in front of you.”
Rep. Ramon Romero Jr. questioned whether the bill adequately protects the rights of those who may be wrongfully accused. “Can someone be falsely accused? And if so, is that enough to deny someone a right to a trial or a right to bail?” he asked, “the DACA people that I know are as American as any single one of us… Simply, let’s have justice for those that may be falsely accused,” he expressed.
While the push for stricter bail laws has found wide support among Republicans and some Democrats, civil rights advocates continue to warn that the proposed measures may infringe on due process protections and overwhelm local jails.
“These proposals aren’t about safety — they’re about expanding the state’s power to lock up poor and marginalized people without due process,” said Chris Harris, Associate Director of Advocacy at TCRP. “This is an effort by lawmakers to make injustice permanent by rewriting the Constitution,” Harris said. “These proposals reveal a disturbing willingness to erode hard-won freedoms in the name of fear and political expediency.”
Supporters argue that public safety demands urgent action to prevent repeat offenses by defendants released under current bail rules. Rep. AJ Louderback, a former sheriff and supporter of the bill, stressed the need for change based on his experience in law enforcement.
“My entire career, I’ve been fighting crime and criminality. We encountered a lot of bad hombres,” Louderback said. “As a sheriff, I had to answer these questions on a regular basis: How did they get out of jail? How did they get out? I had to tell them: our bail system.”
