TEXAS’ DISPUTED IMMIGRATION LAW SB 4 COULD SET A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT
The effects of the law are already being felt in some Texas localities, where state officials have provided no real guidance to local judges and police on how SB 4 should be enforced. For example, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office drafted its own policy on how its officers will carry out arrests under SB 4, which would require the arresting officer to assume liability for the arrest and file a report detailing how and why they questioned an individual’s immigration status. The policy also requires a supervising officer to be present at the site of the arrest. Meanwhile, the Laredo Police Department intends to use the new law to “enhance” charges on crimes perpetrated by undocumented immigrants. The Department of Public Safety has not disclosed how it plans to enforce the new law.
Hidalgo said the ambiguity of SB 4 would have a life-altering effect on his organization’s immigrant clients, with the potential for them to “disappear” without due process under the new law, an occurrence that already happens to detained migrants. The law would also hurt local communities, including U.S. citizens.
“It’s going to completely disrupt communities,” Hidalgo said. “There’s a lot of very complex relationships between migrant communities and citizen communities in our country. It’s not the simple dichotomy that it’s made out to be in the rhetoric that we’re hearing.”
