A coalition of immigrant advocates, human rights and faith-based organizations kicked off a campaign to prepare residents of Texas for the new border enforcement law set to take effect in March.
The groups are also staging statewide protests of the law which authorizes law enforcement to take into custody anyone they suspect crossed the border illegally and authorizes judges or magistrates to order migrants return to Mexico, regardless of their nationality.
“SB 4 is illegal, it’s unconstitutional,” Fernando García, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights said. “Therefore, we are resisting SB 4. It happens that our major tool of resistance is the Constitution of the United States.”
The state has claimed Senate Bill 4 is constitutional and complementary to federal law.
A coalition of 35 organizations are leading a series of protests across the state over the next few weeks urging Texans to demand the repeal of SB 4 and the end of Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement initiative.
During the kickoff in El Paso on Thursday, more than 100 protestors marched through downtown to a building housing state agencies where they held a rally.
“Let’s call SB 4 for what it is, it’s racism,” said former El Paso City Council representative and House District 77 candidate Alexsandra Annello at the rally. “It is profiling community members in this city who don’t speak English and who don’t look like the Governor.”
Similar protests are scheduled in border communities and major cities across the state.
The coalition is also holding “know your rights” sessions statewide providing Texans and immigrants with information about what to do if they are pulled over by law enforcement and questioned about their legal status.
Speaking in Presidio Friday, García said his group would continue to fight the new law.
“The ultimate goal for us is to repeal SB4, either in the courts and if not at the state legislature next year,” he said. “Because we strongly believe this is not what Texas is about. Texas is about compassion, it’s about understanding, it’s about working together and more than anything it's about immigration.”
Gov. Abbott and other Republican elected officials in Texas, have said the state has been forced to assume the federal government’s duty to secure the border and enforce immigration laws as the number of unauthorized crossings and migrants arriving at the border seeking asylum has soared.
SB 4 criminalizes crossings into Texas between ports of entry. A first offense is a Class B misdemeanor that can mean six months of jail. A second offense could lead to a felony charge with a punishment up to 20 years imprisonment.
“This law and these actions of the Governor of Texas are not solely against migrants,” said Carlos Marentes, director of Sin Fronteras, a migrant farmworker center in El Paso.
At the rally Marentes said, “In Texas, we are getting close to having a totalitarian state government where human rights are not respected.”
Marfa Public Radio's Carlos Morales contributed to this report.
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