[Democrats call on attorney general to halt state law, while
Mexican president and ACLU both say they will challenge it ]
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‘TEXAS, WE’LL SEE YOU IN COURT’: MIGRANT LAW SPARKS OUTCRY AND
OPPOSITION  
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Martin Pengelly
December 19, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Democrats call on attorney general to halt state law, while Mexican
president and ACLU both say they will challenge it _

A person walks along a road shadowed by the steel columns of the
US-Mexico border wall., Gregory Bull/AP

 

As a group of Texas and Hispanic Democrats demanded the US attorney
general block what they called “the most extreme anti-immigrant
state bill in the United States”, signed by the Texas governor, Greg
Abbott, on Monday
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the president of Mexico and the American Civil Liberties Union also
vowed to fight the law.

“Texas, we’ll see you in court,” the ACLU said.

In a court filing
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in Austin, Texas, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU – El Paso
county, Texas, and two immigrant rights groups, Las Americas Immigrant
Advocacy Center and American Gateways – sued Steven McCraw, director
of the state department of public safety, and Bill Hicks, district
attorney for the 34th district.

On social media, the ACLU said
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block Texas from enforcing the most extreme anti-immigrant law in the
nation”, which it also said was unconstitutional.

The law will allow Texas law enforcement agencies to arrest migrants
deemed to have entered the US illegally and empower judges to order
deportations. It is set to go into effect next year.

On Monday, congressional Democrats led by Joaquin Castro, from San
Antonio, and including 11 other Texas representatives, Nanette Diaz
Barragán of California (chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus)
and eight other Hispanic representatives, published a letter to the
attorney general, Merrick Garland
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“This legislation authorises state law enforcement officers to
arrest and detain people and state judges to order mass
deportations,” the letter read
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“This bill is set to be the most extreme anti-immigrant state bill
in the United States,” the letter said. “It is clearly pre-empted
by federal law and when it goes into effect will likely result in
racial profiling, significant due process violations, and unlawful
arrests of citizens, lawful permanent residents, and others.”

The next day, the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel López Obrador,
said his government was preparing to challenge the law, which he
called “inhumane”.
“The foreign ministry is already working on the process to challenge
this law,” he said, adding that Abbott “wants to win popularity
with these measures, but he’s not going to win anything, but he’ll
lose favor, because in Texas there are so many Mexicans and
migrants”.

On social media
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Castro linked passage of the law to extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric
deployed on the campaign trail by Donald Trump, the 91-times
criminally charged former president who dominates Republican primary
polling.

Castro said: “Forty-eight hours after Trump accused immigrants of
‘poisoning the blood of our country’, Governor Abbott is signing a
dangerous new law targeting immigrants and everyone who looks like
them.”

Trump made the comments
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at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, then complained of an
“invasion” in Nevada on Sunday. Observers, opponents
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and historians were quick to point out the authoritarian roots of such
rhetoric, which Trump has used before. Many made direct
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comparisons to Adolf Hitler, who used similar language about Jews in
his autobiography and manifesto, Mein Kampf.

On Monday night, a New York Republican congresswoman, Nicole
Malliotakis, attempted
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to defend Trump on television.

“When he said ‘they are poisoning’, I think he was talking about
the Democratic policies,” Malliotakis claimed
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“I think he was talking about the open border policy.

“You know what’s actually poisoning America is the amount of
fentanyl that’s coming over the open border. And so this is a
serious issue, and I think that’s what he’s talking about.”

Her host, Abby Phillip of CNN, said Trump “was saying that the
immigrants who are coming in … they’re poisoning the blood of the
nation”.

Malliotakis insisted: “He never said ‘immigrants are poisoning,’
though … He didn’t say the word ‘immigrants’.”

In Congress, immigration has once again become a political football,
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holding up aid to Ukraine in search of concessions from Democrats.

Abbott is among Republican governors who have forcibly transferred
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migrants to Democratic-run states. In Brownsville, Texas, on Monday,
he signed the new bill and said
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“[Joe] Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for
itself.”

In their letter to Garland, the Democrats led by Castro urged
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the attorney general to “assert your authority over federal
immigration and foreign policy and pursue legal action, as
appropriate, to stop this unconstitutional and dangerous legislation
from going into effect”.

* Texas; Governor Greg Abbott; US Immigration; Mexico;
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