ACLU warns Texas travelers about ‘sanctuary city’ law

In neighboring Louisiana, the legislature is mulling a measure called HB 676 that the ACLU says could result in similar actions by law enforcement and the subsequent issuance of a similar alert. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the ban, known as SB 4, into law the same day.

“Texas has its own “show me your papers” law, thanks to Governor Greg Abbott“, state Representative Eddie Rodriguez said Sunday night.

Advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union are urging county sheriffs and city police chiefs in Texas not to comply with the law.

“We will not allow state officials to move their anti-immigrant agenda forward unchallenged”, Executive Director Mimi Marziani said, “and we stand with our community in Austin, our allies at MALDEF and the Constitutional values we hold dear”. The bill is aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, but primarily aims at ending sanctuary cities. “This law will not make our communities safer; it will only breed distrust and fear”.

Abbott says the ban is needed to keep immigrant criminals off the streets and will stand up in court.

Reaction to the signing spread swiftly in Texas and beyond. “Many of us fit the racial profile that the police in Texas will use to enforce Trump’s draconian deportation force”. Abbott said key provisions of the bill had already been tested at the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down several components of Arizona’s law but allowed the provision permitting police to ask about immigration status.

The lawsuit filed under the federal Declaratory Judgement Act, asks a judge to declare S.B. Texas, which has an estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants and the longest border with Mexico of any US state, has been at the forefront of the immigration debate.

State lawmakers spent most of Tuesday trying to save and scuttle a long list of pending bills before a legislative deadline. The term “sanctuary cities” has no legal definition, but Republicans want local police to help federal immigration agents crack down on criminal suspects who are in the USA illegally.

Sure, it does. But police really ought to be concentrating on real criminals rather than rounding up illegal immigrants who may be perfectly law-abiding people except for a minor traffic violation. This session, legislators have taken up a proposal that would penalize local governments that have “sanctuary city” policies by stripping those governments of a variety of revenue sources, including money from beer and wine taxes and telecommunication taxes.