The anti-sanctuary cities bill, SB4, got out of the Texas House last night with a 93-54 vote. Truly disgusting. Here is a bill that makes it illegal for cities to be sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants and that will racially profile Latinos and Latinas, and that will further persecute people living in our country who are here not to cause trouble, but to work and contribute to our state and nation.
In a state that is already prejudicial and exclusionary on so many levels, for thoroughly documented people, arguing that this will have no collateral effects on the Latino community writ large is untenable and disingenuous.
This is not just a terribly sad day for Texas, but this is an unGodly spirit that threatens the whole. Accordingly, I encourage you to read this June 10, 2011, blog post by the Rev. Larry Payne titled, "An UnGodly Spirit Threatens the Welfare of the Whole: A Call to all good people of conscience, church and spiritual leaders in Texas" that makes this very claim from an earlier legislative session when Rick Perry was our governor. And then consider calling Governor Greg Abbott, asking him to veto this legislation when it gets to his desk.
Our racist legislators are akin to the "evil judges of
Sodom and Gomorrah who developed policies against the outcasts and
strangers in their midst despite an abundance of food and resources." A closing quote from Payne's piece that I, again, strongly encourage you to read:
If we as God’s people are called to care for the outcast and the
stranger among us, how much more are we called to not perpetuate harm or
cruelty to them?
Accordingly, in Ephesians 6:12, the Apostle Paul offers:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
My friends and all people of good faith who see the injustice in this law, do what the Reverend Payne did, and call out this injustice and the evil, dehumanizing motivations of our leadership—not just in Texas, but in the highest halls of state and national power.
Angela Valenzuela
State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, speaks on the House floor.
Updated: 2:10 a.m. Thursday, April 27, 2017 |
Posted: 6:42 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, 2017
After more than 16 hours of debate, the Texas House at about 3
a.m. Thursday voted 93-54 to give initial approval to the bill to ban
so-called sanctuary cities, the common term for jurisdictions that
decline to assist federal immigration enforcement.
Along the way,
lawmakers cried, fought and traded horses on the Texas House floor, and
the bill was amended to be more in line with the goals of hard-line
conservatives.
Calling it the defining showdown of this legislative session for
their constituents and wearing black in protest, outnumbered Democrats
had lined up scores of amendments and planned to fight Senate Bill 4
late into the night.
But almost all of their amendments were
defeated, and tea party-aligned Republicans countered by introducing
measures that would make the bill stricter, restoring some elements that
were stripped out by a House committee after being approved by the
Senate.
One by Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, prohibits local law
enforcement agencies from discouraging their officers from inquiring
about the immigration status of people who have been detained, a broad
category including routine traffic stops. The bill previously limited
that provision to cases in which the person has already been arrested.
Schaefer’s
amendment, approved in an 81-64 vote, drew intense criticism from
Democrats, who say it will lead to racial discrimination against
Latinos.
They bargained for more than four hours over a deal that
never materialized to cut off debate early and abandon dozens of their
planned amendments in exchange for the House forgoing some of the more
conservative proposals, like Schaefer’s.
The Senate has already approved a version of the bill, which was
authored by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and was listed by Gov. Greg
Abbott as one of his “emergency items” for this legislative session.
The
bill would impose stiff financial penalties on jurisdictions deemed to
be sanctuary cities and allow local officials to be charged with a crime
for implementing sanctuary policies. It targets police agencies that
discourage their officers from inquiring about subjects’ immigration
status in certain circumstances and county jails that decline to honor
federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to extend the
detention of inmates suspected of being unauthorized immigrants.
Travis
County Sheriff Sally Hernandez has become a flashpoint in the debate
over sanctuary cities after she adopted a policy in January limiting the
county’s cooperation with those so-called detainer requests, which are
meant to give immigration officers time to take inmates into federal
custody for possible deportation proceedings.
Testy exchanges
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, began Wednesday’s debate
with a call for civility and decorum during what promised to be an
emotional day. It took about two hours for decorum to fall apart during
an exchange between Dallas Reps. Jason Villalba, a Republican backing
the bill, and Rafael Anchia, a Democrat leading the opposition.
After
Anchia pressed Villalba on crime rates among immigrant communities and
other statistics, the Democrat suggested his GOP colleagues were
pursuing the bill because of emotion and prejudice, not a real policy
need.
“Oh my gosh, you don’t act based on data? You act on
emotion?” Anchia, who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus,
said sarcastically. “And hate is a pretty good emotion, isn’t it?”
Villalba
responded by noting previous episodes in which Anchia has said
GOP-driven legislation on immigration is fueled by racism.
“You
have stood on the front mic and impugned the good representatives, the
men and women of this body, about how you feel they’re racist,” he said.
After the dust cleared, Anchia, who was proposing a symbolic
amendment that would gut the bill, said, “What is this about? It’s not
about ICE detainers. It’s not really about crime data. It’s really about
the emotions that Jason spoke to and it’s whether we’re going to place
those emotions in statute today.”
The amendment was defeated in a 90-52 vote.
Almost
every amendment and procedural maneuver proposed by Democrats was
defeated by a similar tally. A rare exception was an amendment by Rep.
Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, that got the blessing of Senate Bill 4’s
House sponsor, Fort Worth Republican Rep. Charlie Geren, and was
approved overwhelmingly.
The amendment changes the process by
which a city or county can be deemed a sanctuary city under the law,
leading to financial penalties and the potential removal from office of
local officials who implemented the sanctuary policy. Previously, the
bill charged the Texas attorney general’s office with deciding which
jurisdictions had run afoul of the law. Lucio’s amendment requires the
attorney general to get court approval before green-lighting sanctions
against a sanctuary city.
Impassioned pleas
Earlier in the day, Democrats made impassioned pleas to their GOP
colleagues to abandon the legislation, including Rep. Ana Hernandez,
D-Houston, who came to the U.S. illegally before obtaining citizenship
and running for office.
“I know firsthand the impact that (Senate
Bill 4) will have on many families … mothers that will be afraid to go
to the grocery store,” she said. “I know how this bill will punish
immigrants and push them into the shadows.”
Rep. Victoria Neave,
D-Dallas, who is on a four-day fast to protest the bill, read profane
social media messages she has received since beginning her fast.
“This
is the sort of hate that our Latino community is already hearing,”
Neave said. “Look into your hearts to realize the impact that this is
going to have.”
Geren, however, said the bill wasn’t
discriminatory because it targeted criminals, not members of a
particular racial or ethnic group.
“This bill has no effect on illegal immigrants if they have not committed a crime or hanging out with someone who has,” he said.
