Two civil rights groups and El Paso County filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas on Tuesday in an attempt to block the controversial SB4 immigration law. The rule, approved Monday by Governor Greg Abbott, allows local and state law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants and penalize them with up to 20 years in prison.
However, the organizations Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and American Gateways as well as El Paso County claim, in the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that the rule is "unconstitutional." Not only that, they allege, SB4 is "dangerously error-prone" and would "disproportionately affect Black people and people of color, regardless of their immigration status."
These are some of the reasons that led the organizations, in collaboration with the Democratic county of El Paso, to file a lawsuit. In this lawsuit, they directly accuse the Texas Department of Public Health and the El Paso District Attorney, Bill Hicks, of carrying out what they consider to be one of the most extreme regulations in the country to prevent the entry of migrants.
BREAKING: We’re suing to block Texas from enforcing the most extreme anti-immigrant law in the nation.
This unconstitutional law allows Texas judges to deport people and allows police to arrest people over suspicions about immigration status.
Texas, we'll see you in court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2023
AMLO accuses the governor of Texas of being a "lord of evil entrails"
The controversial law was not only rejected by civil rights groups and El Paso County, it also raised the discontent of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). He directly accused Governor Greg Abbott of approving the rule, calling him a "bad guy from bad land":
"MALO DE MALOLANDIA": AMLO A GREG ABBOTT
ARREMETE CONTRA GOBERNADOR POR LEY CONTRA MIGRANTES @lopezobrador_ acusó a @GregAbbott_TX , gobernador de "#Texas, de ser "malo de malolandia" por la nueva ley que permite a autoridades locales detener y deportar a migrantes.
Aseguró… pic.twitter.com/ny4GtMlKSm
— MÉXICO AL MINUTO (@mexalminuto) December 19, 2023
Along with this, the Mexican president assured, in statements collected by Telemundo, who were carrying out the necessary legal procedures to challenge Texas, while affirming that the Republican governor had not taken into account, when approving the law, the large number of Mexicans who live in the state:
But he is not going to gain anything, on the contrary, he is going to lose sympathy because in Texas there are many Mexicans, many migrants. He forgets that Texas was from Mexico, like 10 states in the American Union. And they forget that there are 40 million Mexicans in the United States, they forget that this great nation was consolidated and strengthened thanks to the migrants of the world.
México impugnará ley antimigrante de #Texas
AMLO acusa al gobernador Greg Abbott de usurpar funciones del gobierno y Congreso de EU🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/JpJEu2akvB
— Manuel Lopez San Martin (@MLopezSanMartin) December 19, 2023
Why was the immigration law passed?
The SB4 rule is part of Operation Lone Star and is being carried out in response to the massive arrival of illegal immigrants through the southern border, whose main entry points are, among others, Eagle Pass and El Paso.
This crisis is costing the state billions of dollars in addition to posing a problem for both Texas and the rest of the nation, which has seen, during 2023, a record of immigrants trying to enter the country irregularly through Mexico. For this reason, Abbott approved the SB4 law, in an attempt to paralyze the massive arrival of migrants and, with this, try to alleviate the growing immigration crisis:
President Biden’s deliberate inaction at the border left Texas to fend for itself.
New laws I signed yesterday will help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, fund new border wall construction, and crack down on human smuggling. pic.twitter.com/FrLbHpEj2l
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) December 19, 2023
