Texas has intensified its fight to enforce a controversial new law that would allow local authorities to arrest and detain immigrants.
The law has been the subject of an ongoing legal battle, and the U.S. Supreme Court briefly allowed it to take effect on Tuesday.
But a lower court blocked its implementation hours later, amid continuing questions about the law's constitutionality. That court heard more arguments Wednesday weighing the pause.
As Texas' Republican-led administration redoubles its efforts and pledges to defend the law in any legal battles, civil rights advocates have also vowed to do everything in their power to stop it from taking effect.
They warn, however, that the law and its uncertain fate only add to the confusion and fear surrounding immigration in the United States.
“Our community has endured a legal and emotional roller coaster, and this anti-immigrant law [is] very extremist, probably the harshest we've ever seen in the country,” said Christine Bolaños, a representative of the Texas-based Workers Defense Project, which represents immigrant workers.
“We know we are in limbo and we are doing everything we can to continue to keep our community updated and fight alongside our partners and allies.”
The law, known as Texas Senate Bill 4 or SB4, was originally signed by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott in December.
But it has since faced legal challenges from human rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and President Joe Biden's administration, who have argued that it violates the US Constitution.
They argue that the federal government has the exclusive authority to establish and enforce immigration policy.
But for community groups like the Workers Defense Project (which is not part of the current lawsuit) SB4 raises the specter of racial discrimination and other abuses of power by authorities.
Bolaños told Al Jazeera there is still work to be done to provide migrants and asylum seekers with information so they can navigate the uncertainty surrounding SB4.
“The vast majority of our members are migrant workers fleeing violence and other injustices in Latin America, only to find themselves facing measures like this,” Bolaños said.
He explained that his organization works to ensure that migrants and asylum seekers “understand their rights, regardless of their legal status.” The group also offers advice on “how to act if an officer approaches” someone about their immigration status.
“We have also started working on what is called a 'dignity plan'. That includes an emergency checklist to make sure our members have everything to prepare for the worst,” Bolaños said.
“If they face the threat of deportation, do they have their child's passport? Who besides them can pick up their children from school? Who has the authority to enter your house?
“These are things that any undocumented person in Texas should think about,” he added.
'A huge fear'
The Texas law would empower state and local authorities to detain people suspected of crossing into the United States from Mexico outside legal ports of entry.
Those without legal documentation could face up to 20 years in prison, but the law allows them to avoid prosecution if they agree to be deported to Mexico, regardless of their country of origin.
Mexico's government has condemned the law as “inhumane” and has said the country will not accept immigrants and asylum seekers deported by Texas.
On Wednesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also called SB4 a violation of international law.
Rights advocates say the law is the state's most draconian yet. It comes as part of a series of state laws aimed at stemming the influx of immigrants and asylum seekers at the border.
Some of that legislation comes under the auspices of Operation Lone Star, a $12 billion initiative in which state officials have planted razor wire along the border, built a floating fence on the Rio Grande and Members of the Texas National Guard have been sent to the area.
However, critics have highlighted the particular danger of increased racial profiling under SB4.
Texas is already a “minority-majority” state, where racial and ethnic minorities outnumber the white population. An estimated 42 percent of Texans identify as Latino, 10 percent are African American, and another 5 percent are Asian American.
While the court fight continues to defend SB4, Texas continues to arrest illegal immigrants for trespassing.
More than 41,000 criminal arrests have been made.
We continue to build a border wall, use natural gas to erect barbed wire to repel migrants, and maintain buoy barriers in the river.
—Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 20, 2024
Those communities are expected to face the brunt of the law, according to Domingo García, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Such a law could wreak particular havoc on communities with “blended” families made up of U.S. citizens and undocumented members, he explained.
“There is a great fear that a parent could go to work one day, be detained by the police, and then detained and deported,” Garcia said. “His children could return to an empty house.”
Like the Workers Defense Project, LULAC is leveraging its resources to reach those most at risk in Texas.
The organization launches a “very massive communication program” with advertisements on Spanish-language television channels such as Univisión and Telemundo, as well as through social networks and WhatsApp.
“We are also talking with the evangelical churches that are very supportive of our efforts, as well as with the bishops of the Catholic Church,” García said.
“And we are holding public meetings with local elected officials, including members of law enforcement who are against this law because they believe it will take resources, officers and jail space away from real criminals.”
“Frankly, it's crazy.”
LULAC and other organizations organized a similar public awareness campaign in response to a 2010 Arizona immigration law known as SB 1070.
That law made it a state crime for undocumented people to reside and work in the United States. It also allowed the arrest of people suspected of being in the country without legal approval and required that local authorities investigate the immigration status of people detained by police.
A challenge to Arizona's SB 1070 eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The majority ruled that the federal government had “broad and undoubted power over immigration and alien status,” reaffirming its exclusive authority on the issue.
However, the Supreme Court has not ruled on the merits of Texas SB4.
But critics see SB4 as more extreme than Arizona's 2010 law. Emma Winger, deputy legal director at the American Immigration Council, believes SB4 could eventually reach the Supreme Court, where a ruling upholding the law could be transformative. .
Winger explained that the chances of the court upholding the law in its entirety are slim, since there is little precedent on its constitutionality.
Still, Winger added, the court's conservative majority could make a surprise decision: “I wouldn't leave anything out of this Supreme Court. “They have shown themselves quite willing to overturn past precedents.”
If ultimately ratified, the Texas law will almost certainly be mirrored in other states, including those far from the border, Winger said.
He pointed to a bill recently passed in the Iowa state legislature that would also allow state authorities to arrest and deport immigrants for being in the country without legal status.
“[The Texas law] “It creates these kinds of independent, parallel, conflicting immigration systems that operate at the same time, without the oversight, permission or oversight of the federal government,” Winger told Al Jazeera. “Frankly, it's crazy.”
“And we also have the potential for a real kind of diplomatic crisis: a situation where the state of Texas is in a stalemate with the federal government of Mexico and interferes with what is a very complicated and important federal relationship of the United States. “.
'Stake through the Statue of Liberty'
While the legality of SB4 is being debated in the courts, it can still have an effect on the daily lives of immigrants and asylum seekers, said Bolaños of the Workers Defense Project.
“The discussion at their dinner tables right now is whether or not they need to take immediate action,” he explained, “whether or not they need to move out of Texas.”
“Beyond the feeling of being in limbo, of frustration, deep disappointment and demoralization, I think it's also extreme shock and disappointment at how ignorant, hateful and divisive our current system really is,” he said.
LULAC's Garcia added that the current legal fight embodies a broader issue of American values.
If the law were allowed to remain in effect, it would be “a gamble through the Statue of Liberty and what the United States represents as a country of immigrants,” he said.
“I would say that those who peddle fear and hate are winning nationally and are taking us to a dark page in American history.”
