We are living in a moment of fear that is being projected onto immigrants, and this now frames every current public policy debate on a wide range of issues, most recently and obviously over travel bans, deportations and the border.
This happened in the 1950s, when President Eisenhower instituted “Operation Wetback,” an offensive name for an offensive operation that removed half a million people. Before that, in the 1930s, a similar operation rounded up between half a million and two million people, many of them American citizens, and sent them to Mexico.
Our country’s discriminatory attitudes and acts are well-documented, from anti-Irish and anti-German sentiment in the early to mid-1800s to vicious lies about Italians, Russians, Chinese and other groups in the late 1800s and early 1900s to the internment of American citizens of Japanese origin in WWII. We also have a history of negative attitudes towards certain religions, including the well-documented antipathy towards Jews in the 1900s that persisted until after WWII.
But despite this, people are drawn to our country because of our very nature, which I believe is deeper than these irrational and momentary surges of fear and oppression. From our founding documents that led us to become a beacon to the world to the physical embodiment of that beacon, the Statue of Liberty, the soul of the nation was described by the great poet Walt Whitman, who paid homage to the immigrant and the worker.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend celebrated Whitman in a 2011 Atlantic Magazine piece:
“I contain multitudes,” he wrote. He embraced the soul of democracy, its fundamental faith in humankind. He knew that the fate of each one of us is inextricably linked to the fate of all. “Whoever degrades another degrades me,” he wrote. “I speak the password primeval, I give the sign of democracy.”
The Texas Senate this week turned its back on “the soul of democracy” by passing S.B. 4, a bill that sets us back 100 years in our relationship with Mexico and with immigrants.
Texas depends on immigrants for its economic vitality, from those who pick crops to those who create technology. Following the lead of the current President, some Texas politicians are attacking the people and policies that have helped Texas diversify its economy and enrich its culture.
We have defeated similar proposals in the past, but this is the first time that we are considering the proposal under the backdrop of a federal government recklessly targeting immigrants and minorities.
S.B. 4 takes away law enforcement’s ability to set community-based public safety decisions while making each local jurisdiction liable for complex judgments on immigration laws. It imposes this liability not only on police and sheriffs, but also on nearly every entity with a policing component, like a university.
The presumption of innocence is a key tenet of our justice system. S.B. 4 violates this core American principle by imposing a presumption of guilt based solely on immigration status.
Probable cause is a requirement imposed on law enforcement to protect arbitrary denials of liberty. By giving detainers a legal status similar to that of a warrant, S.B. 4 violates the due process rights of Americans, especially those who “appear to be foreign.”
S.B. 4 also threatens the loss of state funding, including criminal justice grants that serve veterans and victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. This is cruel.
Proponents say this is about “following the law.” I couldn’t agree more. Deputizing state and local police to enforce immigration — the unquestioned province of the federal government — is both unconstitutional and ineffective public safety policy.
Unfortunately, this legislation isn’t limited to Texas. Proposals are being made in states across the country, an attempt to capitalize on the anti-immigrant moment.
We will keep fighting. As our history shows, sooner or later, America wins and regains its soul.
José Rodríguez, chairman of the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus, represents Texas Senate District 29, which includes the counties of El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, and Presidio, and more than 350 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.
