Governor Abbott signs a law allowing Texas police to arrest illegal aliens, much to the chagrin of open borders leftists.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed legislation that effectively makes illegal immigration a state crime, an apparent necessity in light of the Biden administration’s apparent inability or unwillingness to enforce federal immigration law. . Police will soon be able to arrest foreigners who enter the United States illegally. Magistrates will also be able to order illegal aliens to leave the country.
Senate Bill 4which will go into effect in March, is one of the few new tools Texas has been equipped with to address record monthly illegal border crossings.
“Four years ago, the United States had the fewest illegal border crossings in decades,” Abbott
saying in a sentence. “It was because of four policies implemented by the Trump administration that led to such a low number of illegal crossings.”
In fiscal year 2020, there were
400,651 The southwest border is between October and September. By contrast, in fiscal year 2022, there were 2,387,944 encounters during the same stretch. More than 6.6 million illegal aliens have crossed the border illegally since President Joe Biden took office.
“President Biden has eliminated all of those policies and done nothing to stop illegal immigration. President Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,” Abbott added.
Laying down the law
Both chambers of the Texas legislature passed SB 4 in November. This legislation, proposed by Republican state Rep. David Spiller, would make illegal entry into the Lone Star State a class B misdemeanor and allow foreigners who refuse to leave the country to be charged with a felony. second degree, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Additionally, illegal aliens found “at any time” who have been previously convicted of two or more misdemeanor drug offenses, crimes against a person, or both would be charged with a third-degree felony.
The law provides civil immunity and indemnity to state and local government officials to protect them from lawsuits resulting from the enforcement of Texas law. However, law enforcement officials cannot make such arrests in schools, churches, sex abuse shelters and hospitals.
Leak
indicated in October that this legislation was a “Texas solution to a Texas problem. It is a humane, logical and efficient approach to a problem created by the Biden Administration [sic] the continued failure and refusal to secure our border. “Not only does it not overburden our criminal justice system, it should be less costly than detaining many of the people we are currently spending funds on.”
“There is nothing unfair about ordering someone to return from their place of origin if they came here illegally,” Spiller added.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
called SB4 “the strongest border security bill Texas has ever passed.”
Reaction from the usual suspects
Blaze News previously reported that Mexican authorities have criticized SB4, noting in a Statement of November 15 that “the Government of Mexico categorically rejects any measure that allows state or local authorities to detain and return Mexican nationals or foreigners to Mexican territory.”
Democrats, liberal media and other left-wing activists have joined the foreign power in denouncing SB4.
The ACLU of Texas
threatened last month to sue if Abbott ratified SB4.
“Senate Bill 4 (88-4) repeals federal immigration law, encourages racial discrimination and harassment, and gives state officials the unconstitutional ability to deport people without due process, regardless of whether they are eligible.” to seek asylum or other humanitarian protections,” said Oni Blair, executive director of the ACLU of Texas.
“These new measures will not rebuild trust among immigrant communities that have long struggled with the specter of detention and deportation,”
saying Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, former policy director for Michelle Obama who now serves as executive director of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, another group that welcomes illegal aliens to the United States. “On the contrary, they are poised to create a chilling effect, deterring immigrants from seeking necessary assistance or cooperating with authorities, and endangering the safety and cohesion of Texas communities as a whole.”
The pro-illegal immigration group Border Network for Human Rights threatened to organize a “journey of resistance” caravan along the Texas-Mexico border, teaching immigrants how they can circumvent state law and exert political influence in the United States. United to repeal the law.
reported WWTI-TV.
Democratic Rep. Verónica Escobar (Texas), a supporter of BNHR’s efforts, stated: “What the state of Texas is doing and our governor and members of the (Republican-led) Legislature are doing is wanting to have an immigration system state. , and that goes against our Constitution, against federal law.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and other left-wing lawmakers have written to Biden’s Justice Department, asking it to sue Texas to stop SB4 from going into effect.
“We urge you to assert your authority over federal immigration and foreign policy and take legal action, as appropriate, to prevent this unconstitutional and dangerous legislation from taking effect,” the letter said.
Thirty former immigration judges issued a
statement on November 10 claiming that SB4 “is not legal.”
Liberal media outlets have repeatedly compared SB4 to a 2010 Arizona law, Senate Bill 1070, which ultimately passed.
shot down in 2012 by the Supreme Court.
“The central question is whether states can make it a crime to violate federal immigration law and detain an alien for violating that law,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston. .
said The New York Times.
“What Texas is doing is taking over from Arizona,” said Daniel Morales, a law professor at the University of Houston. “This is a complete relitigation of the issues that arose and were resolved in that case.”
Some Republican state lawmakers believe the law could get a fairer hearing before the high court now that it has more conservative judges on the bench.
reported the Texas Tribune.
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