AUSTIN, Texas ― Democratic elected officials from across the state gathered in front of the Capitol Tuesday to announce plans to challenge a Republican-backed immigration crackdown that opponents describe as unconstitutional.
Activists and politicians, surrounded by dozens of chanting supporters, said they’d spend the summer rallying opponents of Senate Bill 4 to fight the new law in the courts, and to oppose Republican lawmakers who passed it.
“They want elected officials like the ones standing behind me to back down,” Austin City Councilman Greg Casar said. “We’re going to give them a summer of resistance.”
Once SB4 takes effect in September, local officials like Casar could find themselves facing criminal charges. Under the law banning sanctuary cities, any jurisdiction that declines to hold an undocumented immigrant in custody on behalf of federal immigration authorities would face fines and the loss of state grant money. Officials who enact such policies face the possibility of prosecution and up to a year in jail. SB4, drawing comparisons with Arizona’s 2010 immigration crackdown bill, allows police to question the immigration status of anyone they stop.
But the anti-sanctuary bill signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this month is already facing so many legal battles that opponents said they’re confident the bill will be blocked in court before it’s implemented.
“We’ve heard a lot of reasons why SB4 is bad policy,” Marisa Bono, a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said. “But let’s be clear. It’s also illegal. It’s unconstitutional.”
Critics say there’s no way the law will stand up in court. Federal judges have already ruled that requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold undocumented immigrants on their behalf, known as “detainers,” violate the Constitution’s 4th Amendment, if the person would otherwise be eligible for release on bond or because criminal charges were dropped.
Imposing state criminal penalties onto federal immigration law likely tramples over the U.S. government’s exclusive authority to set immigration policy. And the provision allowing police to ask for proof of legal residency opens the door to racial profiling in a state where a majority of residents are people of color, critics said.
“This law creates a fake narrative that criminalizes an entire ethnicity,” Austin City Councilwoman Delia Garza said.
Two local jurisdictions ― the town of El Cenizo and the county of Maverick ― have already filed a lawsuit against the state. They’ll soon be joined by others.
El Paso County Commissioners voted Monday to file a challenge. Austin City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday to direct the city’s lawyers to take any action necessary to fight the law in court in order to preserve Travis County’s “sanctuary” policy, which directs local jails to disregard requests to hold undocumented immigrants on the federal government’s behalf unless the suspect is convicted of or charged with one of a few serious felonies. Dallas City Council will also consider whether to take legal action this week.
It’s unclear whether the lawsuits will proceed separately or will become consolidated. Hours after Gov. Abbott signed SB4, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to preemptively declare the law constitutional and limit legal challenges the state could face.
Opponents emphasized that legal challenges were only one part of their strategy. They also plan a summer-long campaign to drum up opposition to the Republican-dominated legislature’s hard-line efforts to make life harder on immigrants.
Pointing out that conservatives passed SB4 over the objections of some of the state’s top law enforcement officials, state Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) described the bill as an attempt to score political points by targeting immigrants and the state’s Hispanic community.
“If it’s not about law enforcement, then it’s about something else,” Anchia said. “It’s about conflating immigrants with lawlessness and criminality.”
Karla Pérez, an organizer with the immigrant youth-led United We Dream group and a participant in the government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, said she viewed laws like SB4 as symptoms of an effort to push people like her out of the state.
“This is my home,” Pérez said. “I am prepared to defend it.”
Before You Go
