NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Reacts to Anti-Immigrant ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Law Taking Effect

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) released the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to allow Greg Abbott’s new anti-immigrant, “Show Me Your Papers” law to take effect while litigation continues. 

“I’m getting calls from constituents because they are scared that their families will be torn apart or caged by Abbott’s new ‘Show Me Your Papers’ law,” said Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas). “Asking local police to hunt down Texans who look like immigrants doesn’t make us safer, in fact, it takes police away from investigating real crime. I will do everything in my power to continue to block this unconstitutional anti-immigrant policy — this fight isn’t over.”

“Today, the court invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the national government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizens.”

Background on New “Show Me Your Papers” Law (SB4):

• SB 4 creates a state version of the federal illegal entry offense, in the hopes that state and local law enforcement will arrest, detain, and ultimately deport people and those assumed to be migrants.
• SB 4 contains a myriad of constitutional problems. Notably, it requires two state-level entities–the arresting officer and the magistrate–to make status determinations, a power reserved for the federal government alone. 
• The process for seeking asylum under SB 4 is unclear, even to the bill’s authors. Under federal law, a person has a right to present themselves on an asylum claim at any location, not just at a point of entry. Federal authorities then interview them to determine eligibility. SB 4 would require that this same person be arrested, forced through a state criminal proceeding, and either jailed or deported before they would have the opportunity to talk with a federal immigration officer.  
• The bill text and other documents are available here.

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.