HOUSTON — Last night, the Texas House of Representatives voted in favor of Senate Bill 4 (SB4), the bill that would ban “sanctuary cities” policies and require local law enforcement to serve as federal immigration agents. The bill now heads to Governor Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it.
“I am deeply grieved but wholly unsurprised that anti-immigrant lawmakers in the Texas House have taken a wrongheaded, racist piece of legislation and made it a ‘show me your papers’ bill," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "They have stated as clearly as they can that they’re willing to target innocent children, break up families, encourage constitutional violations like racial profiling and endanger Texas communities solely to make immigrants feel unwelcome in Texas. But the members of our immigrant communities should know that you are welcome in Texas, and you’re not alone. The ACLU stands ready to fight the inevitable excesses and abuses of this inhumane, wasteful, hateful bill. We stand with Texas immigrants.”
