Dear Neighbor,
Today, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law Senate Bill 4, known as SB4, a law that allows authorities in Texas to arrest, jail, then deport migrants whom they suspect of entering this country illegally. Set to take effect in March 2024, it is unclear how it will be enforced, but what is clear is that its legality will be challenged by the Biden administration through the Justice Department, the American Civil Liberties Union (who vowed to do exactly this), the Mexican government, or some combination of the three.
Because the federal government is actually tasked with addressing how or when to remove non-citizens for violating federal immigration laws, the state of Texas seems poised to lose this case, whenever it comes, just as Arizona lost a similar case in 2012 based on their bill SB1070. Back then, the Supreme Court concluded states could not interfere with federal immigration law. And how right they were.
Imagine a wild west in which rogue states had different laws and exceptions about who could enter the country and under which conditions. The lack of consistency would be wildly confusing, not only for immigrants, but for our very mobile society, and the liklihood of innocent people being swept up in raids without a hierarchy of accountability would be far greater than it is now. Additionally, the path to citizenship of the United States would be less obvious as different states would have different ideas about how to do that.
So much of this hateful, racist authoritarianism could be avoided if the United States would re-evaluate paths to citizenship so that workers could earn the right to live, contribute more beyond their taxes to the economy, and grow their families, which would skew our aging population to a younger one. These considerations take legislation, however, legislation that would amend the Immigration Act of 1965, legislation that would have to be passed by Congress, and in this deeply-divided country, that is just not happening. It is so not happening, i.e. our Congress is so disfunctional currently, that it is noted as the second least functional Congress of the entirety of United States history. The least productive Congress enacted 21 pieces of legislation (without corporation) in 1931-32 during the Great Depression. Today’s Congress has only enacted 22 pieces of legislation (without corporation) with an economy that presents declining unemployment, slowing inflation, and nearly pre-pandemic GDP growth in the third quarter.
So we bumble along, until you, Dear Neighbor, vote for progressive Democrats like myself, who will work not only to reform immigration, but who will work at all.
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Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-immigration-law-sb4-signed-greg-abbott/
Beth Farnham for Congress 