The Texas legislature has moved a step closer to passing a controversial immigration enforcement bill that would create a new state crime for unauthorised entry into Texas.
The Texas Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 4 late Thursday night – just days into the state’s current special legislative session.
This speed was only possible after the chamber voted to suspend regular order and hold a committee hearing with little notice. The regular process would have allowed members of the public to testify for or against a major proposal.
Instead, SB 4 was brought forward and debated on the Senate floor just hours later.
The Texas Senate took the same action on a separate bill, Senate Bill 3, which authorises more than $1.5 billion for the construction of border barriers on the state’s southern border.
Senate Bill 4 creates a state crime for unauthorised entry into Texas from a foreign country, a Class B misdemeanour for a first offence. The charge would increase to a state felony for a subsequent offence. It also allows a judge or county clerk to order the migrant returned to a port of entry, but only after all identifying information is obtained and checked against state and federal databases.
Opponents of the sweeping proposal say it conflicts with federal law and will lead to racial profiling.
Both SB 3 and SB 4 are efforts to comply with Governor Abbott’s order for lawmakers to address immigration and border security during the current special session of the Texas Legislature, the fourth Abbott has called since late May.
Illegal entry legislation has been introduced several times this year, but has failed to make it to Abbott’s desk due to Republican infighting over different versions of the proposals. Committee hearings on immigration enforcement bills this year have featured dozens of witnesses for and against the measures. That was the normal process in a House State Affairs Committee hearing on an identical version of the bill on Thursday morning. But shortly after that hearing adjourned, the Senate committee convened its own hearing after voting to bypass the normal notice requirements.
Luis Figueroa, a former general counsel for a state senator and now legislative and policy director for Every Texan, a public policy advocacy organisation, said he and a colleague were the only ones who testified.
“There was virtually no notice, we knew they were coming to the [Senate] floor at 3 p.m.,” he said. “We just happened to hear them say, ‘Suspend the rules.'”
The House committee has moved forward with its bill, but it’s unclear which one will make it to Abbott’s desk. Whichever version it is, however, the measure is likely to face a court challenge as immigration lawyers and other opponents have said it conflicts with federal law.
“I think all these versions have been unconstitutional, but I think the deportation provisions really take it over the top,” Figueroa said.
Immigration lawyers have said state-based immigration enforcement is likely unconstitutional because of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down an Arizona law that sought to expand state authority over immigration enforcement. The court ruled that a provision of the law that allowed law enforcement to arrest a person without a warrant based on their immigration status violated federal law.
Lawmakers have also heard from local officials about the costs they will incur under the new law. Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith testified before the House committee that every county in Texas will bear the burden because the bill applies statewide.
“Every county jail in the state of Texas could be impacted by these unlawful presence arrestees,” said Smith, who is also president of the Sheriff’s Association of Texas.
State Sen. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, said last month that his county determined it would need a new 400-bed detention facility to have enough space to house immigrants prosecuted under the bill.
“That’s at a cost of $162 million and $60 million a year just to maintain operations and detentions and prosecutions and indigent defence and court costs,” he said during a floor debate.
The Texas Senate’s swift action shifts the pressure to move the bills forward to the Texas House of Representatives. Its version of the border funding bill, House Bill 3, will be heard in a budget committee on Friday, and HB4 now moves to the full House, where Democrats are likely to offer several amendments to the legislation.
