The American Civil Liberties Union has put out a “travel alert” for anyone planning to visit Texas, just days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a so-called “sanctuary cities” ban into law.
The goal of the alert, officials said, is to warn travelers and residents about the ban, known as Senate Bill 4, that lets law enforcement officers ask people during regular stops whether they are in the country legally.
“The ACLU’s goal is to protect all Texans and all people traveling through Texas — regardless of their immigration status — from illegal harassment by law enforcement,” Lorella Praeli, ACLU’s director of immigration policy and campaigns, said of the alert issued about Texas in more than a dozen states.
“Texas is a state with deep Mexican roots and home to immigrants from all walks of life,” she said. “Many of us fit the racial profile that the police in Texas will use to enforce Trump’s draconian deportation force.”
The new law goes into effect on Sept. 1.
Critics have blasted the controversial Texas law, likened to Arizona’s “papers, please” law passed in 2010, which has drawn repeated protests at the Capitol. They say they fear Hispanics will be targets of racial profiling and worry it will bring a “chilling effect” to immigrant communities across the state.
The Texas measure — which follows a move by President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold funds from areas that don’t comply with immigration laws that could lead to deportation — also threatens law enforcers with jail time if they don’t work with federal immigration agents.
“Elected officials and law enforcement agencies don’t get to pick and choose which laws they will obey,” Abbott said about the new law.