Mexico's President Blasts Gov. Abbott Over Newly Signed 'Inhumane' Immigration Law

The gloves are officially off in the war of words between Texas and its southern neighbor.

On Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador slammed a new Texas law as “inhumane,” according to Reuters. López Obrador warned that his government was getting ready to challenge Senate Bill 4, which lets state law enforcement arrest undocumented immigrants.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 4 on Monday, but it isn’t scheduled to take effect until March. The law has already attracted widespread condemnation from rights groups.

For his part, Abbott accused the Mexican president of being a "large reason" for the United States' immigration crisis.

"What López Obrador has done is reprehensible, subjecting thousands upon thousands of people to torture, to rape, to assault, to even death," Abbott said during Monday's ceremonial signing of SB 4 and two other border-related bills. "And he just fast-tracks them to the state of Texas and thinks he can condemn Texas because of it? That's outrageous."

Via his Operation Lone Star initiative, Abbott has spearheaded a de facto crusade against illegal immigration. He’s touted efforts to install floating orange buoys along the Rio Grande to try to prevent migrants from reaching Texas soil. He’s also pushed for continued construction on the Texas-Mexico wall, not to mention the recent announcement of new “anti-climb barriers” covered in razor wire.

Mexico’s president frequently rails against Abbott and GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he encourages Mexican-Americans to refrain from voting for them, according to Reuters.

"The foreign ministry is already working on the process to challenge [SB 4]," López Obrador reportedly said.

He added that Abbott is seeking to gain popularity by signing anti-immigrant measures into law. But López Obrador believes the Republican governor will actually “lose favor” because Texas is home to many migrants and Mexicans.

Meanwhile, multiple civil rights groups are launching a legal battle following Monday’s bill signing.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the ACLU filed suit on Tuesday to challenge SB 4. They argue that the law would green-light deportation without due process and deprive migrants of the right to seek humanitarian protections such as asylum.

The way these organizations see it, SB 4 is “unconstitutional” and “preempted by federal law,” according to a news release. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include El Paso County, American Gateways and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Advocates are sounding the alarm that the law will usher in a rise in racial profiling and further crowd a state prison system that’s “already rife with civil rights abuses.” They also warn that it will contribute to family separations.

Adriana Piñon, legal director of the ACLU of Texas, condemned SB 4 as being among the “most extreme anti-immigrant bills” nationwide.

“The bill overrides bedrock constitutional principles and flouts federal immigration law while harming Texans, in particular Brown and Black communities,” she continued in a press statement. “Time and time again, elected officials in Texas have ignored their constituents and opted for white supremacist rhetoric and mass incarceration instead.”