plan of action - june 19, 2017

Texas - SB4

The State of Texas has enacted a piece of legislation - SB4 - which will greatly increase the scope of immigration enforcement. The bill requires officials other than immigration officers to question and report the immigration status of individuals such as crime victims, trial witnesses, college students, and others. The law would criminalize any jurisdiction, such as a city or police department - which attempts to limit its officials from checking or questioning a person’s immigration status. All the police chiefs of Texas have spoken out against this law, as it would severely limit their ability to allocate resources as they think fit, and it has already had a chilling effect on crime reporting in Latino and other immigrant communities. Thus, far from making Texas safer, it actually makes it more dangerous. This kind of anti-immigrant scare-mongering legislation is the fruit of the hostile climate created by Trump, and we want to stop it from spreading.

Action:

1. Write to the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, telling him that you abhor SB4 and hope that he will not sign it into law. Say that this is exactly the kind of legislation you do NOT want to see in your own state.

Greg Abbott contact info: http://gov.texas.gov/contact

2. Houston City Council is considering a lawsuit against the state of Texas to prevent SB4 becoming law. Contact the Mayor of Houston, telling him that as a fellow American citizen, you would be grateful to him if he would try to stem the tide of hateful legislation and help protect the entire country from this kind of law.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, City of Houston, P.O. Box 1562, Houston, TX 77251
(713) 837-0311; sylvester.turner@houstontx.gov