Step.- Dozens of members of the Texas community, border and immigrant advocates, and civil rights organizations came together to protest outside the Texas Capitol building Wednesday as the Texas House of Representatives considers two deeply dangerous bills. and anti-immigrants, HB 20 and HB 7.
Officials from the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) participated in the demonstration in Austin. In El Paso, members of the BNHR demonstrated outside the Texas Government building in Downtown.
HB 20 is a far-reaching bill that would establish and empower a separate unit within the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to recruit non-department employees with no law enforcement experience to roam the streets. streets of Texas and arrest and detain any member of the community perceived to be a “migrant.” These vigilantes would be granted criminal and civil immunity against allegations of wrongdoing. The bill would increase criminal penalties and up to a $10,000 fine against migrants.
HB 7 would institutionalize the system of criminalization under Operation Lone Star, which arrested and prosecuted on state charges more than 12,000 people seeking freedom and safety at the border. It would expand the current shadow court system where people arrested for so-called “border crimes,” including trespassing, are sent to private processing centers where they are tried in trailers and incarcerated in TDCJ prisons instead of county jails.
Advocates and community members said they oppose these bills because they argue they are an attempt by Governor Abbott and lawmakers to distract the public from the real issues and the shameful waste of Texan tax dollars under Operational Lone Star. In Texas, from the Gulf to the Panhandle and from our neighborhoods to our ranches, community members know that if these bills are allowed to advance, they will become a license for roving vigilantes motivated by racial animus to divide our communities and, worse yet, cause significant harm to people who are only looking for protection or a better life.
