Texas enacts toughest anti-immigrant law in the US

Critics have called it the toughest law against immigrants in the United States in the last 20 years. As of Monday, it is a reality in Texas, the second most populated state in the country, where 40% of residents are Hispanic. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the law Monday afternoon in Brownsville, along with two other laws that toughen treatment of migrants. Under the new rules, local authorities will be allowed to ask migrants for their papers anywhere in the state. If they do not have them, the person may be detained and deported to Mexico — irrespective of whether they are a national of that country. The law, known as Senate Bill 4 (S.B.4), will go into effect in March of next year.

”Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,” Abbott said as he signed the bill in front of the border wall between Mexico and the United States. The governor said that the current state of the border is “a risk to the national security” of the United States, stating that 24,000 Chinese citizens tried to enter illegally last year.

According to Abbott, SB4 will help stop “the tidal wave” of irregular immigrants who have arrived in Texas. This law, approved in November by the Republican majority in state Congress, is part of a package of initiatives aimed at curbing the record-high number of border crossings seen this year. Senate Bill 4 makes illegal entry into Texas a state crime that can be punished by state authorities. This means that local police and judges will be able to approve deportations, which only federal authorities are allowed to do under U.S. legislation. “For repeat offenders, it creates the offense of illegal reentry with a potential prison sentence term of up to 20 years,” the governor added.

Abbott said that the law creates a mechanism that allows immigrants to be deported to the country from where they made the irregular crossing. The governor did not mention Mexico in his speech, but the state has a thousand-mile-long border with the country. The Mexican government opposes the law. In a press release in November, the Mexican Foreign Ministry warned that the criminalization of immigrants “will result in the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling.” It also rejected the fact that the law empowers state authorities to “detain and return nationals or foreigners to Mexican territory.” Texas has 10 million inhabitants of Mexican origin.

Human rights organizations have threatened to sue the Texas government to stop the law. “Senate Bill 4 supersedes federal legislation, promotes racial profiling and harassment, and unconstitutionally authorizes local authorities to deport people without due process, regardless of whether immigrants are seeking asylum or other humanitarian protections,” said Oni Blair, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Thirty former immigration judges who served in Democratic and Republican administrations signed a joint letter last month calling the rule unconstitutional.

Abbott enacted the laws two days after former U.S. president Donald Trump told a rally in Nevada that he would launch the largest deportation operation if re-elected next year. The former president also told supporters in New Hampshire that undocumented immigrants “are poisoning the blood of our country.” Last month, the governor joined Trump on a visit to the border. “We need Donald J. Trump back as our president,” Abbott said. The governor added that he was endorsing Trump’s bid to win the White House in 2024 because he will “restore law and order” to the border. Trump, meanwhile, has applauded Abbott’s initiatives to curb immigration in Texas. These tactics include bussing migrants to Democratic cities, and installing buoys and razor wire to deter migrants from crossing the Rio Grande.

Senate Bill 4 sparked days of tension in state Congress before it was approved. The final green light came on a Thursday at the end of October at 4 a.m. The Republican-controlled House prevailed over attempts by Democratic politicians to stop the bill, which was sponsored by Republican state Republican David Spiller and allows anyone to be detained on suspicion of having entered Texas illegally.

In addition to Senate Bill 4, the governor of Texas also signed two other laws: Senate Bill 3 and Senate Bill 4 from the Third Special Session. The first law provides local authorities $1.5 billion to strengthen border surveillance. The governor will continue to build a border wall and install other barriers that make it more difficult to cross into Texas. His measures have been considered inhumane and have caused deaths in a year that has seen a rise in migrant deaths. The governor’s initiatives have also sparked several lawsuits in court. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Texas to remove the buoys that Abbott had installed in the Rio Grande. This floating wall has also caused diplomatic disputes with Mexico.

The third law toughens penalties for human traffickers. Abbott said that 317 people were arrested on charges of human trafficking in 2017. This year, that number has risen to more than 3,000, an increase of more than 2,000%. Senate Bill 4 from the Third Special Session increases the minimum sentence for smuggling to 10 years and creates a five-year prison sentence for anyone who operates or helps the operation of a stash house in Texas. Stash houses are used by cartels and people-smuggling gangs as distribution centers for migrants. They are kept in these residences until their families pay fees supposedly owed for smuggling them into the United States. Once the money is paid, the migrants are released.

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