WHAT IS TEXAS SB 4 IMMIGRATION LAW?

Senate Bill 4 otherwise known as S.B. 4 is a deeply anti-immigrant law passed in November 2023. The new law allows regular police to engage in immigration enforcement. Police in Texas are permitted to detain people under the suspicion of being non-US citizens and entering Texas from another country without proper documentation. 

The issue of immigration is misdirected. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to come into the country, but there has not been any sensible immigration policy reform to process immigration. These undocumented residents are left to be used as a labor surplus to benefit corporations as well as a political scapegoat and tool as it is convenient to American politics.

Instead of pushing for immigration policy reform, Texas wants to institute S.B. 4. The enforcement of S.B. 4 would look similar to Arizona’s S.B. 1070, also known as “show me your papers” law, or stop and frisk policies. These laws have been judged unconstitutional and are blatantly discriminatory inviting racial profiling of people. S.B. 1070 racially profiled Latinos and stop and frisk predominantly profiled black and brown communities.

You could be born a citizen or a legal immigrant and S.B. 4 affects you. You could be a student on campus, or a tourist at the airport, or a businesswoman on your way home from work and S.B. 4 has the power to encroach and change your life.

Presently S.B. 4 is blocked by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Biden’s administration has been rather unwilling (at best) and cooperative (at worst) regarding Abbot’s antics at the border. It’s no surprise this administration can’t reign in a rogue Governor, much less a rogue allied nation. Biden’s position, on immigration has been regressing and adopting conservative reactionary rhetoric as of late. This could spell a troubling verdict regarding the fate of S.B. 4 in Texas.