Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that while it is still subject to review, Senate Bill 4 would still be enforceable in the State of Texas. Hours later, a lower court then put the law back on hold following a last-minute hearing from the Texas solicitor general – with statements against SB4 provided by the US Dept. of Justice and the ACLU – the law was brought to appeals court and currently is in deliberation.
In response to the apparent unconstitutionality of the law, as well as its enthusiastic signing by Gov. Greg Abbott at the end of last year following its passage, protesters gathered on Palm Sunday at Civic Gardens in Downtown Dallas for speeches preceding a ‘Mega March’ down Commerce Lane. The march – organized by the local chapter of Brown Berets, the DFW Anti-War Committee, National Alliance Against Racial & Political Repression (NAARPR), Palestinian Youth Movement and others – turned around the Dallas Morning News Building to proceed past City Hall on Young St., eventually ending by way of Griffin St.
The protest was principally led by members of the DFW Brown Berets and was emceed by Trans Empowerment Coalition Director Stacey Monroe.
“SB4 is unconstitutional. It’s one of the most anti-immigrant pieces of legislation that’s ever been passed in the United States,“ says Tony, an organizer with the DFW Brown Berets. “It also establishes the crime of unlawful entry into the US, allowing law enforcement to imprison you for up to six months. [If you re-enter the country] you’ll be charged with unlawful re-entry, which carries a sentence of 10-20 years.” Additionally, in some cases SB4 will require Texas judges that have no training in immigration law to preside over cases and make rulings.
As law enforcement in the United States has a history deeply intertwined with the slave patrols of the colonial-to-civil war era, racialization in policing is perhaps one of the most distinct qualities of the American criminal justice system. However, SB4 allows police considerable power where they would otherwise be required to have probable cause to detain persons or carry out searches.
The law is reminiscent of many other notable pieces of anti-immigrant legislation that have put the country at odds with people migrating into the States from Mexico. Aside from a renewed focus on the border during the 90s when then-President Bill Clinton famously referred to ‘the illegals’ in a State of the Union Address, the United States has signed various, blatantly racist policies targeting Mexican immigrants and non-white immigrants overall.
From the ‘Nativist’ coalition of the 1920s calling for the expulsion of non-white immigrants in the United States – culminating to congressional debates exposing anti-Mexican sentiment over immigration policy and the passage of the Undesirable Aliens Act of 1929 – to the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 expanding immigration law while maintaining the racialized intent, immigration policy as a whole in the United States has always been a vehicle for discrimination.
“This is the same system that criminalizes Black people’s existence, that criminalizes our youth, that denies us our basic human rights. Black and Brown solidarity isn’t just some slogan, it’s a necessity,” NAARPR member Ebonee stated during her speech at the Mega March. “We need to let them know that we will not be silenced and that we will not be divided.”
Racial profiling is very much alive and well in policing bodies all over the country. Law enforcement in Texas in particular is a harsh offender of the practice. Despite the fact that white Texans have been found to be sometimes even more likely to be in possession of illegal drugs or weapons than Black and Brown counterparts, they are subject to significantly fewer searches. SB4, so to speak, rests additional weight on this already uneven scale.
Law in the United States, whether related to policing or immigration policy, has consistently been utilized to carry out acts of institutionalized racism. As factors like literacy, access to information, and social integration have shifted over time, policy acclimates and rhetoric shifts in order to maintain control. This is a phenomenon not entirely independent of general opinion and behavior, but distinct as racist attitudes have been found to have decreased in the public over previous decades.
In 2021, Operation Lone Star was started as a joint-effort between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department to occupy towns and increase security along the Texas-Mexico border. This was launched as Gov. Greg Abbott criticized policies from the federal government as too lenient. The Texas Legislature has committed almost $2 billion to the project, despite widespread criticism.
As SB4 relates to Operation Lone Star, many are concerned that militarized presence on the border can grow more contentious for residents in towns like Eagle Pass where agents hold an increasingly invasive presence for community members young and old.
“Our community has been taken over by law enforcement and military forces while our river is being damaged by discarded chains, wire, and cement. On top of all of this, the government of Texas is putting our community into further danger with Senate Bill 4,” a community member from Eagle Pass said. “It’s not only unconstitutional, it creates fear and anxiety in immigrant communities. […] It’s not securing our border, it leaves room for law enforcement officials to abuse their power and racial profiling.”
Aside from the border wall being exorbitantly expensive and effectively useless, there have been calls for open borders from varying perspectives on the political spectrum. Likewise, both Libertarian and Progressive commentators have advocated for an entirely new approach to curb issues such as world poverty and displacement due to climate change to in-turn promote rejuvenation of our economy.
Furthermore, the government’s fixation on the border only intensified in the 1990s during the HW Bush and Clinton administrations amidst concerns related to terrorism and unauthorized entry. Prior to this point, immigration laws were passed granting temporary protections for Sudanese, Nepalese, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Honduran, and Haitian immigrants fleeing war violence. However, these protections are set to run out in 2024-2025, as Venezuelan protected status was revoked earlier this month. SB4’s effect with these developments in mind remains to be seen.
As negative sentiment against undocumented community members rises – with a strong emphasis against Mexican-Americans – the irony of Texas’ inception and its land’s seizure from Mexico continues to be simultaneously lost and found through its legislative approach.
SB4 comes with a variety of other bad omens and legal concerns in Dallas and Texas-at-large, including the construction of a ‘Cop City’ on UNT Dallas Campus (a majority Latine campus) and marijuana criminalization’s role in racial profiling. In response, community activists stand firmly against its enforcement as more progressive Texas cities anticipate the significant backlash. SB4 remains on hold, but threatens to help usher in a new era of racialized policing.