Texas anti-immigrant laws are trickling to other states, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center pushes breaking data where the organization tracks some of these troubling trends.
(Texas) - Since Texas SB 4 was enacted, it has become a template of hate for other states. Our latest brief, “Criminalizing Immigration,” outlines which communities are at risk of being harmed and how to prepare. As of the writing of the brief, five states have passed Texas SB 4 copycat bills into law: Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and other troubling measures inspired by Texas SB 4 are already on the way. The infamous Texas state deportation law, Texas SB 4 has quickly become a powerful arm of the dangerous and unconstitutional Operation Lone Star (“OLS”). Texas SB 4 is one of the most extreme pieces of legislation targeting communities of color, including immigrants, in the United States, according to a new policy brief by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and AJA Advocacy Solutions.
The phenomenon of “crimmigration”–the interrelationship between the criminal-legal and immigration systems–is alive and well in practice and is growing in popularity as more anti-immigrant policies take effect. Advocates and movement leaders can and should respond in ways which reflect the understanding that a perverse expansion of the criminal legal system to target immigrants will spell disaster for all who live in the United States–citizens and immigrants alike.
“Texas SB 4 represents a dangerous trend among state governments who are now openly hostile towards immigrants: perverting the state criminal-legal system to target and punish the most vulnerable,” said AJA Advocacy Solutions Principal and Founder, Breanne J. Palmer, Esq.“Elected officials are moving beyond simply mirroring barbarity in the criminal-legal and immigration systems. They are now making all systems unsurvivable for immigrants.”
The brief details ways advocates can fight back against these copycat bills, highlighting advocates' responses to Texas SB 4. Due to Texas’s robust immigration advocacy ecosystem, communities and advocates have been organizing large-scale, multi-prong resistance to the implementation of both Texas SB 4 and Operation Lone Star. This resistance includes conducting consistent Know Your Rights (“KYR”) workshops and teach-ins, coordinating communications plans, narrative strategies, messaging gameplans, and organizing meetings with local law enforcement agencies, amongst other items.
The brief recommends the following for establishing an effective vanguard against Texas SB 4 and Operation Lone Star.
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The United States Department of Justice must intervene and challenge all states where Texas SB 4 copycat bills are being passed into law.
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Local governments in tandem with legal and advocacy organizations should also proactively litigate against Texas SB 4-style bills if and when they are passed into law.
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Communities across the nation, regardless of legal status, must powerfully resist efforts like Texas SB 4 and its copycats wherever they come up, while attorneys and advocates battle these measures in the courts.
“Since Operation Lone Star was created in 2021, the ILRC has worked to push back against the harms of OLS. We remain committed to continuing our fight against OLS in Texas and we are committed to work alongside other advocates throughout the country who are protecting their communities against harmful copycat bills, said Texas-based ILRC Senior Policy Attorney, Priscilla Olivarez. “We stand alongside advocates in Texas and throughout the country and demand the Department of Justice do more to protect our communities against dangerous and unconstitutional legislation.”
To learn more and get involved in ongoing advocacy efforts, please visit
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The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is a national nonprofit that works with immigrants, community organizations, legal professionals, and policy makers to build a democratic society that values diversity and the rights of all people. Through community education programs, legal training & technical assistance, and policy development & advocacy, the ILRC works to protect and defend the fundamental rights of immigrant families and communities. Follow us at www.ilrc.org, and on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram @the_ILRC