Crockett Joins Castro-led Letter with Texas Democrats, Hispanic Caucus Members Urging Justice Department to Block Texas “Show Me Your Papers” Law
WASHINGTON — Today, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) joined Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Texas Congressional Democrats, and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice urging it to use its authority to prevent the state of Texas from enforcing Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), an unconstitutional and dangerous bill that would authorize state law enforcement and judicial authorities to obstruct federal immigration law. This comes after Congresswoman Crockett led a letter cosigned by Texas Congressional Democrats to the DOJ in early December 2023, calling on the DOJ to provide oversight on reported abuses by the state of Texas under Operation Lonestar. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 4 into law this afternoon.
"This bill is set to be the most extreme anti-immigrant state bill in the United States; it is clearly preempted by federal law and when it goes into effect will likely result in racial profiling, significant due process violations, and unlawful arrests of citizens, lawful permanent residents, and others. In practice, this would place people with authorization to be in the United States, even United States citizens, at risk of being forced to leave Texas…The process of removing people from the United States is constitutionally a federal process and excluding federal authorities, including Department of Homeland Security agents trained in immigration law and federal judges trained to enforce it, will obstruct asylum cases, result in erroneous determinations, and put many people in danger. SB 4 is an unlawful attempt to engage in federal immigration enforcement. This law will also interfere with federal efforts to create a safe, humane, and orderly system at the border," the lawmakers wrote.
Senate Bill 4 passed the Texas House and Senate in mid-November. Today’s signing ceremony was announced just two days after former president Donald Trump, echoing language used by Adolf Hitler, accused immigrants coming to the United States of “poisoning the blood of our country.” Governor Abbott endorsed Donald Trump’s approach to immigration during a visit to the border with the former president in late November.
In addition to Congresswoman Crockett and Congressman Castro, the letter is signed by Texas Reps. Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Colin Allred (TX-32), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Al Green (TX-09), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Marc Veasey (TX-33), and Greg Casar (TX-35), as well as Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Luis Correa (CA-46), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Grace Napolitano (CA-31), Norma Torres (CA-35), and Delia Ramirez (IL-03).
The full letter is available here
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Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett represents portions of Dallas and Tarrant Counties, with the cities of Dallas, Grand Prairie, DeSoto, Cedar Hill, Lancaster, Duncanville, Glenn Heights, Hutchins, Wilmer, Arlington, Ovilla, and Seagoville.