Texas Bill Will Let Police Deport Migrants, *Technically* Violate The Fuck Out Of US Constitution
Guess they forgot to read the E Plebnista!
The Texas House of Representatives passed a dandy new bill last week that would allow state or local police to deport undocumented immigrants right back to Mexico without any interference from the federal government, not even those Woke Libs in the Border Patrol. Here’s a gift link to the Houston Chronicle’s coverage.
Now, technically, you could say that violates the absolute fuck out of the Constitution, which gives the feds the sole authority to make and enforce America’s immigration laws. But the Texas Lege appears to hope the current Supreme Court might be fine with ignoring the basic principle of federal supremacy in law, despite the Court’s June ruling that states can’t make up their own immigration laws if they don’t like federal immigration policy.
The proposal, House Bill 4, is the brainchild of Republican state Rep. David Spiller, and would let police anywhere in Texas charge someone who illegally entered Texas outside a port of entry — at any time; they don’t have to be caught at the border — with a misdemeanor carrying a sentence up to six months.
But — here’s the cute twist! — the law would give cops the discretion to take the suspect to a port of entry “in lieu of arrest,” point them south to Mexico, and tell them to get out of Texas. If the arrestee refuses, they could be charged with a second degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Spiller said he considered the proposed law a “humane, logical and efficient approach to a problem created and fostered by the Biden administration’s prohibitive failure and refusal to secure our border,” and argued that there’s “nothing unfair about ordering someone back from where they came if they arrived here illegally.”
And for you wusses who worry about “due process,” the bill even includes some exceptions, like banning arrests in churches or other houses of worship, hospitals, and even on the grounds of schools, although presumably after someone picked up their kid and drove or walked 20 feet they could be nabbed. Also, the law allows a few “affirmative defenses,” like proving the federal government granted them “lawful presence in the United States,” or that they were granted asylum or DACA status.
But as state Rep. Joe Moody (R-El Paso) argued during the heated debate on the bill, people arrested under HB 4 couldn’t raise those defenses until
“after you are arrested, held in jail and eventually get to your trial.”
“A cop anywhere can skip arrest, skip a judge, skip even booking or a report or any kind of record at all, and just take them to the border and tell them to get out,” Moody said, arguing this would leave people with “zero due process.”
Well look, it might mean some legal residents or citizens who venture out without their papers might be inconvenienced — and maybe held in jail long enough to lose a job — but nobody ever said due process had to be fast, did they? (If they did, maybe the Supremes will throw that out too.)
As the Houston Chronicle reports, when Republicans voted to cut off debate and amendments just after the bill reached the House floor, Democrats got angry for some reason, even though it was obvious their voices don’t matter anyway. Were there expletives? Oh yes there were:
As the Chronicle summarizes,
State Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat who is Latino, laid into state Republican Rep. Cody Harris of Palestine for bringing the motion, telling him the overall bill would make it more likely for police to pull him over when he’s in public.
“Y'all don't understand the (expletive) that y'all do hurts our community,” Walle said in a confrontation captured by lawmakers and widely circulated on social media.
“It hurts us to our (expletive) core,” he said. “And y'all don't understand that. You don't live in our (expletive) skin.”
Walle has refused to apologize, and damn right.
Oh yes, and in a great pushback against the idea that Texas is into abusing migrant children, HB 4 includes a tiny section to make sure that Texas law enforcers never again shove children into the Rio Grande or withhold water from children in the hot sun, or even deny urgent medical care to kids, though apparently all of the above would be OK to inflict on adult asylum seekers. Trapping children in underwater barbed wire would apparently remain fine, too.
A similar bill to HB 4 has passed the Texas Senate, although it doesn’t include the “in lieu of arrest” instant-deportation option, so Republicans will have to decide exactly how badly they want to invite a federal lawsuit before sending a final version to Gov. Greg Abbott to sign.
The bill is pretty obviously aimed at overturning the previous Supreme Court decision invalidating most of Arizona’s 2010 “show your papers” law, so the real surprise will be if the Lege decides to go with the Senate version, which is quite bad enough.
[Houston Chronicle (gift link) / Texas HB 4 / LAT]
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Rightwing US America Patriots love the Constitution, except when it gets in the way of cracking down on scary brown people. Fortunately, they can ignore SCOTUS decisions they dislike, because the REAL Constitution is about keeping America white.
How will Texas cops find the time to violate women’s constitutional rights if they’re busy violating immigrant’s constitutional rights?