SCOTUS decision makes me fear for my family
Texas’ Senate Bill 4 is back in the news, and once again, it makes me fear for my family and community.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the state of Texas to begin deporting undocumented people — a job that historically belonged solely to the federal government. Later that day, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals again moved to block Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in December, while they consider its legality.
On Oct. 25, 2023, this bill came up for debate on the floor of the Texas House. As a state representative, I had already endured years of watching our state leaders spew hateful rhetoric about folks who look like me crossing the border to seek asylum.
This debate came after months of fighting against every iteration of this bill, and after multiple special sessions. And it was after a bill similar in spirit passed in 2017, when debate devolved into threats of violence and a member moving to call immigration authorities on Texans in the gallery.
When House leadership moved to quash further debate on the bill and just ram House Bill 4 through so that their folks could go home, I broke.
“Y’all don’t understand how the s—- that y’all do hurts our community. It hurts us. … Y’all don’t understand that. Y’all don’t live in our f——— skin.”
That’s what I said on the House floor — in an exchange I did not want or expect to be caught on camera. But it was.
My first thought when I was told it had been posted and gone viral? My family.
I am from a mixed-status family. They are always on my mind. I think about their safety. I think about how we are brown, and what that means in Texas, and what laws like this one ask our police officers to guess about people like us. I think about my sons, who are too young to know their rights if they are stopped based on the color of their skin.
Which is, essentially, what SB 4 asks any peace officer to do.
The state is now enforcing immigration law — something that is constitutionally under the purview of the federal government — by telling any peace officer to question and arrest anyone they “believe” entered Texas illegally.
The bill doesn’t define how an officer would come to “believe” someone entered illegally. Amendments to prohibit racial discrimination failed to pass.
Now, in just a matter of weeks, this bill has been blocked and cleared and blocked and cleared again. Although the most recent ruling by the 5th Circuit is a relief, it is impossible for those of us most at risk to relax. How could my community feel safe, when it seems that each day we wake up to different news about whether or not this bill will go into effect?
This all comes on the heels of Donald Trump sabotaging President Joe Biden’s bipartisan border security bill, which was carefully negotiated across the aisle. Biden’s effort was an important first step to address the real problems on our southern border, but like so many good ideas in this country, it fell prey to political games.
GOP lawmakers praise SB4 ruling that lets Texas deport migrants as Mexico says it won’t accept them.
It didn’t have to be this way. Legal scholar Steve Vladeck has already pointed out that although Justice Amy Coney Barrett argues SCOTUS has never reviewed an administrative stay, she neglects to acknowledge that SCOTUS could issue its own injunction.
It’s a terrible time for democracy.
The earliest iteration of this bill, 88® House Bill 20, was killed procedurally for invoking Section 10, Article I of the U.S. Constitution as justification for the bill. The House ruling on that procedural violation stated that the bill’s “invocation of this authority is an express declaration of war.”
Senate Bill 4 is tidier, craftier and less explicit than its earlier versions, but the spirit is the same. It gives our state the right to deport its people based on guesswork and profiling. It allows an individual state to pick an enemy, declare an invasion and deny due process. It cracks the very foundation of our United States. And the Supreme Court — whose sole purpose is to protect the Constitution — has allowed it to stand.
A few weeks ago, worried that SB 4 might go into effect, I held a “Know Your Rights” event in my district. We brought in an expert on the bill and collaborated with on-theground organizations to teach people how to keep themselves safe and how to fight for their constitutionally guaranteed right to due process. Even then, the fear was palpable. My neighbors — regardless of legal status — were confused and scared.
Our leaders don’t understand how this hurts our communities, all of our communities. But in the coming weeks, as this becomes the new law of the land — as Texas citizens are questioned and folks legally seeking asylum are deported and untrained officers become both police and border control — they will.