Picture of Texas with various images from protests in it.

Texas

Background

Immigrants, Black people, and communities of color in Texas have faced decades of criminalization, incarceration, and deep entanglement between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration enforcement authorities - leading to high numbers of immigration arrests, deportations, and incarcerations.

Texas is also home to one of the nation’s most regressive anti-immigrant laws, SB 4, which fortifies ICE’s ability to use local jails to target, arrest, and deport immigrants. As an epicenter for criminalization and immigration enforcement, we know that policies in Texas will impact other locations facing similar challenges.

Our Strategy

Our strategy to challenge the anti-immigrant and mass incarceration agenda in Texas is to pass and implement local policies that disrupt the arrest-to-deportation pipeline by reducing arrests, incarceration, and deportations. We advocate for local policies that promote immigrant rights and criminal justice, and we provide a wide range of campaign, legal/policy, and communications support to local groups and coalitions fighting for inclusive justice.

By increasing understanding of how the criminal and immigrations systems intersect, nurturing effective coalitions, winning policy change, developing resources, shifting the narrative, building legal capacity, and fostering cohesion among advocates across the state, we seek to build a strong movement for long-terms wins at the local level and strengthen legal representation for immigrants in Texas. 
 

Our Texas Based Staff

Alicia Johnson

Document Formatter | ajohnson@ilrc.org

Carolina Canizales

Senior Texas Strategist | ccanizales@ilrc.org

Cori Hash

Senior Staff Attorney | chash@ilrc.org

Ilse Hernandez

Texas Regional Organizer | ihernandez@ilrc.org

Jennefer Canales-Pelaez

Texas Policy Attorney & Strategist | jcanales-pelaez@ilrc.org

Katy Murdza

Texas Regional Organizer | kmurdza@ilrc.org

Manuela González

Texas Communications Coordinator | mgonzalez@ilrc.org

Priscilla Olivarez

Policy Attorney and Strategist | polivarez@ilrc.org

Coalition Partners

We proudly work in collaboration with these coalitions and other partners throughout Texas looking to better the lives of immigrants. These are some of the coalitions we partake in:

Resources

FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
10/22/2024
Over the past few years, Texas has led the nation in cruel attempts to criminalize and punish immigrants and noncitizens. The infamous Texas state deportation law, SB 4, is an integral part of the dangerous and unconstitutional Operation Lone Star and is one of the most controversial and extreme pieces of legislation that targets immigrants and noncitizens in the United States. In 2024, state legislatures across the country have proposed bills that further expand the already vast and punishing criminal-legal system by requiring local law enforcement to carry out federal immigration enforcement and creating new crimes that punish the act of crossing into a state without legal status. Unless stopped, Texas SB 4 and its ilk could herald a regressive wave of anti-immigrant state legislation that will endanger noncitizens and U.S. citizens across the country–to a greater extent than occurred in 2010 after the passage of Arizona’s infamous racial profiling law, SB 1070. This report looks at the copycat policies being put forth across the country.
Resources
Resources
Publication Date
08/20/2024
Texas' SB 4 - 88(4) is not only unconstitutional and illegal, it is bad law. Currently, this law is being challenged in federal court and it has not been allowed to go into effect because of these constitutional concerns while the litigation is pending. This memo breaks down the legal arguments against it and the impact the policy has had on the community.
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
ILRC comments on Texas House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety Testimony on SB 602.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
07/23/2024
Texas authorities have expansively interpreted a 2024  law that imposes a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence on people convicted under the state's smuggling law to include giving rides to undocumented people, The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Detention Watch Network (DWN), and AJA Advocacy Solutions said this report highlighting the law’s harm. The brief states that most people prosecuted for smuggling in Texas are young US citizens. Texas law enforcement officers have a troubled track record with identifying alleged smugglers, and now the state has raised the stakes of each arrest significantly.
Toolkit & Reports
Resources
Publication Date
06/18/2024
While politicians enact and reenact their reckless border theatrics, the ILRC surveyed border residents about their actual needs and how the influx of law enforcement efforts has affected them. We found that while the state of Texas spends more and more money on police and prisons, local governments are starved of funding and communities lack the most basic services, including clean water, paved roads, and street lights.
Toolkit & Reports
Resources
Publication Date
02/15/2024
This map displays the counties in Texas that have implemented policies and actions against immigrants, particularly under Operation Lone Star
(OLS) and anti-immigrant legislation. It is important to note that these findings are within the context of Texas being a state with a strong pro-incarceration and anti-immigrant stance.

Este mapa muestra los condados en Texas que han implementado políticas y acciones contra inmigrantes, en particular bajo el Operativo Lone Star (OLS). Es importante tomar en cuenta que lo que muestra el mapa es bajo el contexto de que Texas es un estado con opiniones fuertes a favor del encarcelamiento y sentimientos anti-inmigrantes.

En Texas, inmigrantes, migrantes y personas de color enfrentan riesgos de diferentes niveles. Sin embargo, ningunas áreas pueden ser consideradas santuarios o jurisdicción donde no estén bajo amenaza de los departamentos de policía local, estatal, y federal.

Para obtener más recursos sobre el Operativo Lone Star, visite https://www.endlonestar.com/



      
Public Comments / Sign-on Letters
Resources
Publication Date
01/17/2024
Texas-based organizations comprised of, representing, and serving individuals and communities directly impacted by border enforcement measures write to Texas Members of Congress to seek solidarity and to implore not to worsen the crisis by layering over sweeping new federal border and asylum restrictions. The organizational letter highlights how these changes would have disastrous consequences not only for migrants but for Texas communities, who are presently living under the oppressive and unconstitutional Operation Lone Star.
Toolkit & Reports
Resources
Publication Date
01/26/2024
This slide deck was created by a coalition of organizers, activists, and attorneys in Texas to be publicly available for use as a resource when conducting know-your-rights presentations on Texas SB 4/ HB 4.

Community leaders, organizers, and activists are welcome to use this full slide deck as provided, or select the slides that are applicable to your presentation needs.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
05/03/2023
An immigrant legal defense fund pays legal service providers to represent community members facing deportation in immigration court. This resource provides a general overview of immigrant legal defense funds (ILDFs) at the municipal level in Texas, including why they are needed, the goals and components of a strong ILDF, and examples of these funds from across the state.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
10/27/2023
In Texas, Black and Latinx migrants are being harmed by Operation Lone Star- an unconstitutional and racist law enforcement operation that is criminalizing migrants who are seeking safety in the U.S. border. Operation Lone Star is a complex scheme involving multiple law enforcement agencies in the state. This comprehensive resource explains how Operation Lonestar is being implemented and funded, explains why this operation is illegal and unconstitutional, highlights how this scheme expands the carceral and enforcement systems, and how it’s harming entire border communities.

ILRC in Texas

The ILRC’s work in Texas focuses on building capacity and passing and implementing local policies that dismantle the arrest-to-deportation pipeline and decriminalize immigrants, Black people, and other communities of color.