“We have message for Governor Abbott—if you come for our families, we are going to come for you and vote you out of office,” said Margarita Arroyo, who lives in Austin and is the daughter of immigrants.
The 100 days of action includes efforts to register Latinos to vote and protests in Austin and Dallas against Texas’ new sanctuary city ban.
The Lubbock Republican who authored the bill, State Sen. Charles Perry, said police are not required to ask a person’s immigration status, but the new law makes it legal for them to do so in the course of an investigation.
“We are a nation of immigrants but we want to make sure that those who are immigrating to the U.S. legally get their first place in line and we don’t want that to be undermined by illegal immigration,” Landgraf said.
Dallas Democrat, State Rep. Rafael Anchia, said the law demonizes immigrants and all 40-percent of state’s population who identify as Latino.
El Paso County Commissioners voted Monday to hire a law firm to lead legal action against the state over SB 4.
In a written statement, a spokesman for the governor’s office said, “Texans of all walks of life, including Latinos, want the same thing as every other Texan – safety and security in their communities – and that’s what this bill does by keeping dangerous criminals off of our streets.”
He also implied opponents are distorting the facts about the law to drum up concerns.
<p class=”xxmsonormal” style=”margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, ” apple=”” color=”” emoji”,=”” “segoe=”” ui=”” notocoloremoji,=”” symbol”,=”” “android=”” emojisymbols;=”” font-size:=”” 16px;=”” background-image:=”” initial;=”” background-position:=”” background-size:=”” background-repeat:=”” background-attachment:=”” background-origin:=”” background-clip:=”” initial;”=””>The sanctuary city ban goes into effect September 1, 2017.
