Human rights advocates are pleading with the Biden administration to take legal action to block new Texas laws designed to counter illegal border crossings and to give state law enforcement officers the right to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Dec. 18 signed Senate Bill 3, which allocates more than $1.5 billion for continued barrier construction along the U.S-Mexico border and an additional $40 million for state troopers to patrol areas considered to be heavily populated by undocumented immigrants.
He also signed Senate Bill 4, which makes crossing the border illegally a violation of state law and gives local and state law enforcement the authority to arrest violators — anywhere they may be found. The law runs counter to U.S. Supreme Court precedents that the federal government alone can arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.
Salvadorian immigrant Olga, 23, is overcome with relief after reaching the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border on December 19, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. She said her journey had taken one month, with the entirety of Mexico being the most difficult part. She hopes to be able to follow asylum claims and live in Los Angeles with family members already there. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
“Gov. Abbott’s draconian and racist ‘show me your papers’ type law is a direct assault on Black, brown and indigenous people and will encourage law enforcement to further target people simply because of the color of their skin,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “These laws do nothing to address the underlying causes of migration and will only serve as a waste of taxpayer dollars to instill fear and create chaos. It is simply unconscionable, and the Biden administration must intervene to protect the very communities that elected him.”
Immigration rights supporters had other controversial challenges to deal with in the days after the Texas bills were signed into law. They included repeated U.S. Senate Republican attempts to add drastic asylum reforms to the president’s foreign aid bill, and former President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail charges that immigrants are diluting “the purity of American culture.”
“Trump’s words very intentionally create hatred of the other and are nothing more than fear mongering.”
“Donald Trump’s remarks in recent days accusing immigrants of ‘poisoning the blood of America’ are reminiscent of the language of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime,” said Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “Trump’s words very intentionally create hatred of the other and are nothing more than fear mongering.”
Trump’s language stokes the darkest of human emotions in order to incite hatred and harm against immigrants, he said. “LULAC urges all Americans, irrespective of party affiliation, to resoundingly denounce and reject unequivocally this kind of hate speech. There can be no place within our country for dividing people based on their genetics, appearance, culture, color or language.”
Jonathan Greenblatt
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said Trump’s history of making inflammatory and racist remarks contributed to the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pennsylvania and the massacre of migrants at a Texas Walmart in 2019.
“ADL will continue to condemn anti-immigrant ideology and xenophobia. Such nativist talking points have the potential to cause real danger and violence. We have seen this kind of toxic rhetoric inspire real-world acts of violence in places like Pittsburgh and El Paso. It should have no place in our politics, period. America is stronger as a pluralistic society that welcomes immigrants.”
Trump’s nativist and fascist language is nothing new but it is concerning, said Jon Lewis, a research fellow with the program on extremism at George Washington University.
“The white supremacist and antisemitic conspiracies and narratives that underpin this rhetoric, including the Great Replacement theory and the concept of ‘white genocide’ have become increasingly mainstreamed in recent years,” he said. “The use of this dehumanizing rhetoric by a presidential candidate against immigrants is likely to serve as justification for lone actors seeking to commit violence against their perceived enemies in the culture war.”
In an aerial view, thousands of immigrants, most wearing thermal blankets, await processing at a U.S. Border Patrol transit center on December 19, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Major surges of migrants illegally crossing the Rio Grande have overwhelmed U.S. border authorities in recent weeks. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Indications that Biden may be open to Republican immigration demands in a foreign aid bill for Ukraine has raised objections from his progressive base. Many of the president’s supporters already have been incensed by the strict asylum and immigration limits he has imposed since taking office.
Conservatives are seeking a reintroduction of border expulsions similar to Trump’s Title 42 policy, an increase in the credible fear standard for asylum seekers, a numerical limit on asylees and mandatory detention during the asylum process.
Fellowship Southwest alerted its supporters that Republicans in Congress are coming dangerously close to significantly limiting asylum.
“For the White House to endorse such cruel policies would be a betrayal to millions of Americans who believed President Biden’s campaign promises to restore our humanitarian leadership and the rule of law.”
“As someone who actually lives, works and serves in a border community, none of the policies under consideration will reduce the number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Elket Rodriguez, CBF field personnel in the Rio Grande Valley and a Fellowship Southwest partner. “In fact, one of the proposals — the reimplementation of Title 42 — will only increase the number of encounters. Policymakers seem to forget that the number of border crossings ballooned when Title 42 was implemented.”
Open Doors US and World Relief implored Biden not to compromise on immigration and to protect due process for migrants fleeing violence and economic desperation in their home countries.
Ryan Brown
“At a time when Christians and other religious minorities face horrifying persecution in many parts of our world, the U.S. must not close its doors to those who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution,” said Open Doors US President Ryan Brown.
“To be clear, not everyone who arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border should be allowed in,” added Matthew Soerens, vice president for advocacy and policy at World Relief. “We have long called for investments and improvements to ensure more secure borders and more efficient asylum processes.”
Reports that the president is open to mandatory detention of asylum seekers and expedited removal is alarming, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
“These concessions would be incredibly harmful to vulnerable people whose only beacon of hope is the legal right to seek asylum on U.S. soil,” she said. “For the White House to endorse such cruel policies would be a betrayal to millions of Americans who believed President Biden’s campaign promises to restore our humanitarian leadership and the rule of law.”
The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign said Biden can honor that pledge by saying no to Congressional Republicans and by challenging harsh immigration laws in Texas.
“As a woman of color, I cannot stress enough how harmful this bill and proposals will be to our communities. As an American, I implore the president to take action. Any agenda that purposely harms communities of color and those seeking safety from persecution must be rejected,” said Melina Roche, #WelcomeWithDignity campaign manager.
