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Longtime Houston immigrant advocate Cesar Espinosa is bracing for the flood of phone calls.
When Gov. Greg Abbott signs SB 4, a bill that would allow Texas law enforcement to arrest immigrants suspected of entering the state illegally from Mexico, Espinosa knows where Houston’s immigrants will turn when their worries boil over.
“When he does sign it, we’ll usually experience 24 hours of intense call volume,” said Espinosa, executive director of immigrant rights organization FIEL Houston. “You’ll hear the phones constantly ringing. A lot of times folks will be asking if people could show up here just to ask questions.”
Abbott has already said he plans to sign the bill, citing safety concerns for the state. The law, which was passed during a special session in November and would go into effect in March if not vetoed, would greatly expand the role of Texas authorities in immigration arrests and deportations. Most of Houston’s law enforcement agencies have not clarified how swiftly and broadly they would enforce their new powers, but just the possibility of SB 4 passing has had a chilling effect throughout the region’s immigrant communities, where about 24 percent of the population is foreign-born.
Even if not directly targeted by law enforcement, immigrants’ distrust in police could lead to lower crime reporting, Espinosa said. So he, and other immigrant rights groups, are preparing themselves for this increasingly intrusive role of law enforcement in immigration.
Some Houston immigrants have already asked him if they should leave the state, while others are fearful but waiting to see if it will be signed and how law enforcement will enact it.
“People already fear police or sometimes associate police with ICE,” Espinosa said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
That distrust is only growing, Espinosa added, even months before the law would go into effect.
Abbott has said the bill is needed to “enhance the safety of all Texans” and has repeatedly called the southern border a place of “chaos” and a “catastrophe.” Border crossings reached a historic high in fiscal year 2023, with more than 2.4 million migrants apprehended at the U.S. southern border, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. More than 1.4 million crossed into Texas in fiscal year 2023, according to the data.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who co-signed the bill, told Houston TV station KPRC 2 that the measure was necessary because the federal government is not fulfilling its duty. Bettencourt did not respond to a request for comment.
Because the statute of limitations for misdemeanors in Texas is two years, supporters of the bill say that it is meant to focus on recent arrivals. But the bill does not limit arrests to the border area and can be enforced throughout the state, fueling fears of racial profiling even in cities hundreds of miles from the border.
“Black and Brown people, regardless of citizenship, are already racially profiled and over-policed, and SB 4 empowers local law enforcement to continue trampling on our rights,” said Tsion Gurmu, legal director at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, at a Dec. 5 press conference.
Twenty-year-old Katia Elisea-Escobar, who has been in the country illegally since she arrived from Mexico at age 1, recently left Houston to live in California and does not plan to return if SB 4 is passed.
“[People in the country illegally] already fear calling the police. I would fear ICE if I had to seek medical attention. We already fear a lot of things. We already are trying our very hardest to navigate life as everyone else,” said Elisea-Escobar a civic engagement fellow for Houston-based community group Woori Juntos. “A lot of people's lives are in limbo and are being stripped of their humanity day by day.”
The law could have a ripple effect of stoking fear in immigrant communities and eroding trust with law enforcement, said Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute, which is based in Washington D.C.
A 2011 MPI study found that jurisdictions with 287 (g) agreements, which allow state law enforcement to carry out certain immigration enforcement activities under the supervision of ICE, lowered trust with authorities and led immigrants to withdraw from public spaces, sometimes even leaving the state.
“People were really scared of dropping their kids in the morning to schools. People were very concerned about going to places of worship,” Chishti said.
The research found that when local law enforcement targeted all immigrants thought to be in the country illegally, rather than focusing on serious criminal offenders, it increased the negative impact on communities.
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said his office wants to focus on catching criminals, but is “not interested in becoming immigration officers.” Making the sheriff’s office wade into the federal government’s job of immigration enforcement would only strain already thin resources, he added.
“We really don't want to be going out into the community and trying to enforce illegal immigration on honest law-abiding people that are just looking for a better life,” said Hawthorne, who is a Republican. “But we are interested in enforcing that law on people that their purpose of coming over here is to commit crimes and take advantage of our law-abiding citizens.”
The Houston Police Department and the sheriff’s offices of Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend counties declined to comment before the bill had been signed. The sheriff’s offices of Liberty, Waller, Galveston and Brazoria did not respond to a request for comment.
Violating rights
SB 4 makes illegal crossings into Texas a state crime, allowing local and state authorities to enter into the realm of immigration enforcement, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled falls to the federal government. The crime is considered a Class B misdemeanor, which can be punished with up to 180 days in county jail and/or a fine up to $2,000. A repeated offense is elevated to a state jail felony.
Under SB 4, a judge or county magistrate can also order a person to return to Mexico. The Mexican Consulate in Houston did not respond to a request for comment, but the Mexican foreign ministry previously issued a statement opposing the measure.
The law would likely face legal challenges from immigrant and legal rights groups that say that it is unconstitutional, violates due process and will lead to racial profiling.
Migrants who fear for their safety in their home countries have a right to seek asylum in the U.S., even if they cross between ports of entry. Under SB 4, seeking legal status such as asylum is not considered a legal defense.
“The way that it is written provides an opportunity for the state of Texas to interdict people who are in migration and return them to Mexico without any advocate, lawyer or anybody being able to provide them with any sense of what their rights are to seek safety in the United States,” said Aron Thorn, senior attorney for the Beyond Borders Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Legal challenges
SB 4 echoes a highly contested 2010 Arizona law that gave more authority to state law enforcement to arrest immigrants in the country illegally. In 2012, the Supreme Court struck down most of the law’s mandates, stating that federal immigration law trumped the state law.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said that SB 4 is blatantly unconstitutional because “the Supreme Court has routinely and very clearly determined that immigration is in the purview of the federal government.”
“We are going to challenge it, and we hope that the courts will recognize the law that is on our side that says that this is unconstitutional,” said Adriana Piñon, the legal director of the ACLU of Texas.
Abbott has said that he will take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Although the Supreme Court makeup has shifted more conservative since the 2012 ruling, the current court precedent could still prevail, according to Chishti of MPI.
“I don't think this is an automatic green signal,” said Chishti. “Recently the Supreme Court has been showing off its hand that immigration still is fundamentally a federal issue.”
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