Washington, DC — Yesterday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas’ SB4 (also known as “show me your papers”) law, which would escalate the state’s ongoing anti-immigrant crackdown by empowering every law enforcement officer to question the citizenship of any Texas resident and detain them.
Also yesterday, NPR highlighted how the relentless anti-immigrant crackdown under Gov. Greg Abbott is already profiling and targeting U.S. citizens – even before SB4 goes into effect. If the new law proceeds, expect that the crackdown on residents’ civil rights to be turbocharged and many other U.S. citizens to be targeted.
According to Mario Carrillo, Texas-based Campaigns Manager at America’s Voice:
“We’re already seeing what can happen to families that look like mine if SB4 goes into effect; we’ll be targeted, detained and harmed. Gov. Abbott’s extremism on immigration continues to reach new depths, and the DOJ is right to challenge this clearly unconstitutional law.”
David Leopold, America’s Voice legal advisor, past president, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and Immigration Group Leader, Ulmer & Berne LLP., offers the following assessment:
“The Texas ‘show me your papers’ law is obviously unconstitutional and an overt challenge to the federal government’s supremacy on immigration. The law invites more chaos and cruelty and civil rights violations, while ignoring the Constitution and clearly defined federal powers – making the DOJ lawsuit more than welcome. Of course, Texas is hoping to find sympathetic judges who are part of the anti-immigrant pipeline in the judiciary. But if the case is reviewed as a matter of law, it should be a strong rebuke against Texas. The new law empowers vigilantes, escalates dangers for citizens and residents, and threatens to trample on the civil rights of every Texan or tourist while thumbing its nose at the Constitution and federal powers.”
