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SB4 Reality: “Stuck Against Competing Interests Between the State and Government”

Feb 16, 2024 | Asylum, Asylum Ban, Blog, Faith Communities, Human Migration, Human Rights, Latest Posts

The U.S. Department of Justice and the ACLU Texas have filed lawsuits against SB4. The ACLU TX and Texas Civil Rights Project also filed a motion for preliminary injunction to stop SB4 from taking effect on March 5, 2024. The preliminary injunction hearing was scheduled the day after Valentine’s day on February 15, 2024. 

I summarized SB4 in a nutshell in this previous blog post as: “SB4 (88-4) creates the state crimes of “illegal entry”, “illegal reentry”, refusal to return to a foreign country, and goes a step further, authorizing state judges to issue deportation orders. As the bill is written, this means any “peace officer” anywhere in Texas, can arrest anyone as long as they have probable cause to believe the person entered this state through anywhere other than a port of entry.”

 

CONVENING OF VARIOUS GROUPS

 

Prior to the hearing, various grassroots organizations, immigration nonprofits, other community organizations, community members, and faith leaders convened outside the Federal Court building in support of communities who will be most affected if SB4 goes into effect. A resounding message from these groups was that one out of every four Texans is an immigrant. Whether Texas publicly acknowledges this or not, this means SB4 will inevitably have a profound and chilling effect on the fabric of the community in the entire state. As Kristin Etter from Texas Immigration Law Council stated, “SB 4 will turn every police officer in Texas into an ICE agent and every judge into an immigration judge.” 

 

THE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION HEARING 

 

U.S. District Judge David Ezra presided over the hearing and made it a point to state he was aware and “not unsympathetic” about many of the issues raised by the State, as he has presided and lived in border communities such as Tucson, Del Rio, and San Diego.

The hearing lasted a bit over three hours with many comments and questions from Judge Ezra, who took the time to ask lawyers for the State most of the questions. The lawyer for the ACLU TX, made a point that his “clients are stuck against competing interests between the state and government.” and that it is a “public safety” concern. It’s easy to get lost in the legalese of terms like “field preemption, conflict preemption, and foreign commerce clause” so this served to ground us back to the realities of how this law will affect communities.

Notable points from Judge Ezra included stating there should have been “a little more care in drafting the state law” and quoted that his “good friend Scalia” had in a dissent, “explicitly said immigration and deportation are federal confines and not for the State.” Judge Ezra ultimately stated, “this will go to the US Supreme Court, I’m pretty sure.” 

 

SB4 INFORMATIONAL WEBINAR

 

Despite what happens, don’t get caught off guard and get your communities ready! Texas Impact in collaboration with the Texas Immigration Law Council will be hosting an informational webinar on SB4 (88-4) so make sure you join us and invite your community members. 

 

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