Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, an opponent in the race for Texas Lt. Governor, has now provided Breitbart Texas with what he claims is the content of the actual 30-year-old amnesty letter allegedly written by Sen. Dan Patrick for a former illegal alien. Patterson claims it is the letter that the then illegal alien used to qualify for amnesty. In a written response, the Patrick campaign stated that they know of the letter and have seen it. They state that Sen. Patrick does not recognize the handwriting, specifically, Sen. Dan Patrick claims that he “maintains unequivocally, that the letter bears no resemblance to his handwriting.”

Less than one week ago, Breitbart Texas reported that a former illegal alien who is now a U.S. citizen, accused Texas Sen. Dan Patrick (a candidate for Texas Lt. Governor) of employing him and volunteering to help him sneak past U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints if he wanted to go back to Mexico to see his ailing mother.  A Dallas Morning News article on this accusation went as far as to say that the illegal alien, Miguel “Mike” Andrade, claimed Patrick had written a letter of recommendation to be used in his application for amnesty under the 1986 Reagan Amnesty law.

In a written response to Breitbart Texas, Sen. Patrick stated that the worker in question provided false documents and a social security number, that the allegation he was kind to the illegal alien are not true, and that he barely remembered the illegal alien–he also stated that he has no recollection of whether he wrote any such amnesty letter.

Patterson said the letter is written on Dan and Nick’s Sports Market letterhead (a business Sen. Patrick owned), was handwritten, and was signed “Dan Patrick, President.” He said the letter met the requirements to be included in the Alien Amnesty package for Andrade.

The saga of the “amnesty letter” led to Patterson sending the former illegal alien (now U.S. citizen) on a plane to Mexico to retrieve the said document and others. Both Breitbart Texas and the Houston Chronicle were made aware of this, and the Houston Chronicle sent a reporter to the airport to meet the former illegal alien as he got off of the plane. Breitbart Texas then interviewed Patterson. The Houston Chronicle sent an image of the document to the Patrick campaign, who were already preparing a comment for Breitbart Texas. 

Patterson told Breitbart Texas tonight, “I guess Dan was ‘for amnesty before he was against it.’ The irony is Patrick has accused the rest of us of being soft on immigration, even for amnesty, and he’s actually written a letter of recommendation for the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ‘Alien Amnesty Application’ as it was described by INS at that time. Hypocrisy, thy name is Dan Patrick.”

Sen. Patrick’s campaign fired back in the written response included in full at the conclusion of this article, though interestingly it does not directly deny Sen. Patrick’s authorship of the “amnesty letter.” At no point did Sen. Patrick specifically state that he did not write the letter in his response, as he avoided directly denying it. He nuanced a response asserting that he did not recall and that he did not recognize the handwriting as his own.

Under the 1986 IRCA law, an alien in this country without proper documentation must provide proof of a history of employment in order to be eligible to be considered for amnesty.

UPDATE: The Patrick campaign contacted Breitbart Texas after the original posting of this article and clarified their position on the alleged “amnesty letter.” Sen. Patrick said, “Let their be no misunderstanding. I did not write this letter. It’s not my handwriting.”

Breitbart Texas requested further clarification; asking if Sen. Patrick authorized the letter, had it transcribed, had another write it for him, and/or if the signature belonged to Sen. Patrick. Sen. Patrick directly stated, “it is not my signature.”

Patrick Statement PR 14 02 23 by BreitbartTexas