This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
Rinalidi's calling of ICE on protesters against SB4 will now be used in a lawsuit to support the view that SB4 was passed with “discriminatory
intent.”
The Republican lawmaker’s call to ICE will “almost assuredly” be used to show ‘discriminatory intent,’ an attorney said.
A protester raises a sign saying “I’m here to stay” in the main rotunda of the Texas Capitol. Sam DeGraveA Texas lawmaker’s decision to report
protesters to immigration police Monday could come back to haunt the
state when it defends the law in court, an attorney involved in the case
said Thursday. On Monday, Representative Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after hundreds of mostly Latino activists filled the House gallery to protest Senate Bill 4, the controversial ‘sanctuary cities’ ban. Jose Garza, an attorney representing El Paso County in its suit against SB 4, told the Observer
that the incident will “almost assuredly” be used to help establish in
court that the Texas Legislature passed the law with “discriminatory
intent.”
“This was a peaceful protest and many were citizens,” Garza said, “and Rinaldi sicced ICE on them because they were brown.” State Representative Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving Sam DeGraveRinaldi, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus and an outspoken supporter of SB 4, said
in a statement on Monday that he called ICE after seeing signs that
read “I am illegal.” After several people, including Democratic
lawmakers, said there was no evidence of those signs, Rinaldi clarified
in a radio interview Thursday that the signs read “undocumented and unafraid” and “undocumented and here to stay.” El Paso County and the City of El
Cenizo have both sued the state over SB 4, and Austin and San Antonio
have announced plans to take legal action as well. Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton pre-emptively filed his own lawsuit, which he hopes
will lead to a judge declaring the law constitutional, shortly after
Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 4 into law. SB 4 is set to go into effect
September 1. Opponents hope a federal injunction will halt the measure
before that date. Proving “discriminatory intent” in the lawmaking
process is part of their legal strategy. Thanks to an amendment by Rinaldi’s
fellow House Freedom Caucus member Matt Schaefer, SB 4 will allow
police to ask people who’ve been detained — not just arrested
— about their immigration status. The law also threatens to jail law
enforcement officials who limit cooperation with federal immigration
agents. Rinaldi’s call to ICE Monday nearly prompted a fistfight
on the House floor. Representative Ramon Romero Jr. said Rinaldi’s call
to ICE demonstrates how the law licenses discrimination. “[Rinaldi] saw a bunch of people who look Latino, and he assumed they were undocumented,” Romero told the Observer on Monday. “So how can he say SB 4 won’t lead to racial profiling?”
Gus Bova is a reporter-researcher at the Observer. He focuses on immigration, the U.S.-Mexico border and grassroots movements. Before the Observer, he worked at a shelter for asylum-seekers and refugees. You can contact him at bova@texasobserver.org.
I'm really impressed with our Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) members that have gracefully and righteously weathered the hateful and violent vitriol that Rep. Matt Rinaldi spewed out with his threatening words. If you have any doubts about this, check out the MALC press conference video and listen to them speak, one by one. They share not just what happened, but also how disgusted they were with Rinaldi as, in effect, characterizing all Mexicans as illegal and engaged in illegal activity when all we, as protesters were doing, was exercising our First Amendment right to protest.
So yes, several MALC members reacted strongly, but never to the actual point of violence or fisticuffs. What do you expect when Rinaldi is one of the reasons why the legislative session lacked civility and decorum? A reporter even asked if this means whether the system is "broken." Legislators unflinchingly, if generously, responded that Rinaldi is the one that's "broken" and that most members get along even if they don't always agree.
A better question may be how they exercise such incredible restraint in environments like the legislature where deep-seated racism, sexism, and homophobia permeate with such license and entitlement. It sure isn't easy...
I heard a great NPR interview of Minnesota Senator Al Franken this afternoon where he shared his version of the "Serenity Prayer":
God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot legislate, the
courage to legislate the things I can, and the wisdom to know the
difference, and the patience to explain that difference to my donors.
... It is exactly true.
Such great wisdom and humor. He has written a book and it's titled, "Al Franken: Giant of the Senate" (Twelve Books). Sounds like a fun read. It's already a New York Times best seller.
My friends, this is a moment to step back and recommit, with intention, to light and faith, rather than to fretting, fear, or fear-mongering. This is a proud moment for the MALC, our community, and democracy. Sí se puede! Yes we can!
Do listen to the MALC press conference video to gain a better sense of what I mean.
We all owe ourselves an applause, a break from the extended, unrelenting beat of harmful, racist rhetoric and behavior, as well as a hard-earned right to a lot of self care.😊
Texas
House Rep. Poncho Nevarez of district 74 speaks about the altercation
that he was involved on the house floor during the last day of session
at the state Capitol in Austin Monday, May 29, 2017. A raucous end to a
divisive Texas legislative session erupted Monday when a large protest
over a “sanctuary cities” crackdown provoked a heated scuffle between
lawmakers on the House floor. (Ricardo Brazziell/Austin
American-Statesman via AP
AUSTIN,
Texas (AP) — A Hispanic Texas lawmaker who a Republican colleague
threatened to shoot "in self-defense" after the Democrat pushed him said
Tuesday that the altercation was a boiling point in a session where
minority members were powerless to stop conservative legislation they
say is discriminatory.Tensions
erupted on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives on Monday
when Republican state Rep. Matt Rinaldi told Democrats he called U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents about demonstrators in the
gallery holding signs that read "I am illegal and here to stay."
Hundreds
of immigrant-rights activists — many of whom were Hispanic — had jammed
the state Capitol on the final day before the Texas Legislature
adjourned until 2019. Some came from as far as Arizona to protest a
"sanctuary city" crackdown that will allow police starting September to
ask people during routine stops whether they're in the U.S. legally.
Democratic
state Rep. Poncho Nevarez did not deny pushing Rinaldi, who wrote on
Facebook that he told Nevarez after being threatened that "I would shoot
him in self-defense." Nevarez said he was "sick of" the attitudes
toward Hispanics in the Legislature and was taking a stand.
"Another
legislator sidled up to me yesterday and said, 'Those aren't Americans
up there.'" said Nevarez, referring to the protesters in the gallery.
"I
think there are some people in some moments that bring out racism. They
want to believe that they're not racist because when they deal with me
I'm one of the 'good' ones. But I'm just one of the folks up there," he
said of the protesters.
A
phone message left at Rinaldi's office was not returned Tuesday but GOP
colleagues rebuked accusations of racism. Rinaldi wrote on Facebook
that he was under the protection of state troopers.
"I
think yesterday was the symptom of what's been a difficult, challenging
and emotional session. No one has totally clean hands but what happened
on the floor with the physical attack on Matt was beyond the pale,"
Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach said.
Republican
Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the "sanctuary ban" known as SB4 this
month, has stayed quiet over the skirmish and a spokesman did not return
messages Tuesday. Nevarez said he wanted Abbott to come out and
publicly say that Rinaldi calling immigration authorities was wrong.
A
Democrat hasn't won a statewide office since 1994 — the nation's
longest such political losing streak — frustrating a party that has seen
the state's Hispanic population boom but hasn't had its electoral
fortunes change. About 43 percent of Texas residents are white, while
whites make up the majority of legislators.
The
tensions flared at the end of the divisive session in Texas in which
race was invoked in debates over immigration, voting rights, border
security and policing. Among the bills sent to Abbott's desk are changes
to a voter ID law that a federal judge has ruled was intentionally
discriminatory. Another was the "Sandra Bland Act," named for a black
woman who died in a Texas jail in 2015 following a confrontational
traffic stop with a white state trooper. Bland's family were
disappointed after police accountability measures were removed.
Democrat
state Rep. Helen Giddings, who was first elected in 1992 and heads
Texas' black legislative caucus, blamed politics, not race, for the tone
of the session.
"In
my years in the Texas House I have never seen the kind of disrespect,
intolerance, incivility that we are seeing in the Texas Legislature,"
Giddings said. "Intolerable, became acceptable. Behavior we had never
thought of as acceptable became acceptable."___
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