Senate Bill 4 passed the lower chamber early Thursday morning and would boost the mandatory minimum prison sentence to 10 years for anyone deemed to have smuggled undocumented migrants. Two additional anti-immigrant bills, House Bills 4 and 6, were also approved and are headed to the Senate.
Gov. Greg Abbott indicated on X (formerly Twitter) that he will sign SB 4 into law.
Texas Republicans are accelerating immigration clampdown efforts during the ongoing special session, insisting that such legislation is necessary to secure the state’s border. But detractors argue that SB 4 and similar “dangerous” legislation will rip apart Texas families and effectively sanction racism and xenophobia.
Mesquite state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, spoke out against SB 4 in a video posted to X on Wednesday.
@Victoria4Texas speaks in opposition for SB4.
— MALC (@MALCTx) October 25, 2023
"A decade of our lives for simply living our lives."📢#txlege pic.twitter.com/G2uTakodxh
“A decade of their lives. Driving family members to the grocery store, to the doctor, to the church or school,” the Dallas Democrat said. “A decade of our lives for simply living our lives. The heartless consequences of forcing families apart will ripple throughout our state.”
Neave Criado further argued that the issues of trafficking and smuggling won’t get solved by the legislation, something she said will leave “children without parents, American-citizen children without homes.”
State Rep. Rafael Anchía, another local Democrat and former MALC chair, posted his takedown of SB 4 in which he explained that immigrants are vital to the state’s economy and social fabric.
I proudly spoke against SB 4 because our immigrant population breathes life into, and is the oxygen for our communities and our economy.
— Rafael Anchía (@RafaelAnchia) October 25, 2023
We need a safe and legal way to ensure immigrants are not exploited and smuggled. Until the #TxLege is willing to have serious conversations,… pic.twitter.com/g0MZeSKERx
Widely shared video of state Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat, showed him urging conservative colleagues to consider the consequences that such anti-immigrant bills will have on his community.
In a post on X, Walle warned that SB 4 could lead folks found driving around with “mixed status family like cousins” to serve a decade behind bars.
What cowards we have on the other side of the aisle. They can’t even allow full and fair debate over their trash bills. They are silencing the voice of Texans across the state who chose US to represent them at the #TXLege. TEXAS CANNOT FORGET THIS DAY. pic.twitter.com/an8yTaSrPs
— Representative Ana-Maria Ramos (@Ramos4Texas) October 25, 2023
Democratic lawmakers weren’t the only ones who expressed outrage.
“[W]ords cannot express how angry and stressed this makes me now that SB4 has passed. [H]ow worried I am and how evil this is,” one X user wrote on Thursday morning.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas slammed SB 4, HB 4 and HB 6 as “extreme” in a social media post. It referenced a report from The Texas Tribune that highlighted ties between white supremacists and an influential anti-immigrant group connected to key figures in the Texas GOP.
The civil rights organization further noted that “SB 4 would make it a crime to simply drive someone to a doctor’s appointment or give a stranger directions.”
NEW: The Texas House voted early this morning to pass three extreme anti-immigrant bills — amid new revelations about links between white supremacists and certain politicians behind these bills.
— ACLU of Texas (@ACLUTx) October 26, 2023
Fear tactics, family separation, and mass incarceration are not policy solutions.
The Texas Legislative Black Caucus condemned the trio of bills and urged Texans to push back. It released a joint statement with other advocacy groups, noting that 10% of Black people in the country are migrants.
“As a result of this legislation, the increased policing, racial profiling, and unregulated citizenship questioning will have disruptive and dangerous consequences for all Texas communities, particularly BIPOC Texans, regardless of citizenship status,” the statement read in part.
Texas AFL-CIO also didn’t mince words when it came to the anti-immigrant bills, writing on X: “HB 4, SB 4, and HB 6 are fueled by hate and rooted in the blatantly racist vilification of migrants seeking shelter in our state.”
