Texas Sen. Charles Perry discusses a bill addressing camp safety and oversight in response to the July 4 floods, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, U.S., August 21, 2025. REUTERS/Nuri Vallbona
A Texas state lawmaker who blocked a Democratic attempt to filibuster in the state Senate once suggested "shoot, shovel and shut up" to deal with immigration, according to a new report.
Last week, state Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock, moved to block Democratic Sen. Carol Alvarado’s filibuster regarding the state's new Trump-backed congressional redistricting map. He cited a campaign fundraising email from Alvarado that promoted the filibuster, arguing this was unethical and a misuse of Senate resources.
On Friday, Democracy Docket unearthed video from a 2022 hearing in which Perry made a shocking remark.
"I've got a phrase I want to say so bad. But I won’t throw you under the bus. It was extremely good,” Perry said at a Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs committee meeting on cattle.
"You might as well go ahead," replies Scott Williamson, then-executive director of law enforcement at the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Williamson was testifying.
"I can do that?" asks Perry.
"You'll have me wondering the whole time," Williamson replies.
"It kind of addresses the immigration issue up in my area of the woods, I’m afraid,” Perry said. “Shoot, shovel and shut up.”
Williamson laughs and asks, "Wonder where you heard that?"
"I don't know where I heard that, but, anyway, all joking aside, on that issue, I’m very concerned," Perry added.
Democracy Docket's Jen Rice called the comment "disturbing" and warned Perry's the remark could backfire on him in a legal challenge to the state's redistricting effort, as it could help prove a "racial animus against Latinos" among white lawmakers.
"Usually elected officials don’t say the quiet part out loud, but this whole process started with the quiet part being screamed,” Dan Vicuña, director of redistricting and representation at Common Cause, told Democracy Docket.
Perry is no stranger to controversy.
In 2014, he used his inauguration speech to warn that a government without God was similar to the Holocaust under Nazi Germany.
Watch the clip below or at this link.