Texas Senate passes sanctuary cities bill

Statement: Ellis on Senate Passage of Sanctuary Cities Bill

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeremy Warren
June 14, 2011
(512) 463-0113


Senator Ellis releases the following statement upon the Senate’s passage of SB 9, the sanctuary cities bill, 19-12, along party lines following hours of debate:

“Not one proponent of this legislation has been willing to identify one single Texas city as a “sanctuary city”. Maybe that is because there are no sanctuary cities in Texas. The term is a paper thin distraction from the state’s unaddressed economic crisis. Instead of finding solutions to even come close to fulfilling our moral obligation to provide an adequate education to our children, we point the finger at one of our most vulnerable populations and say they are at fault. This is a blatant abdication of responsibility by the Texas legislature.

Law enforcement leaders from Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and El Paso testified that the passage of this bill would make their jobs more difficult, that it is an unfunded mandate, and would erode the public safety they are charged with keeping. Attorneys, both members of the Senate and witnesses, attested to the bill’s dangerous lack of clarity. If we did not hear the pleas of the overwhelming number of religious leaders, advocates, students, and victims of domestic violence that testified in opposition to the bill, how can we not hear the grave concerns of those charged with keeping us safe?

The so called “sanctuary cities” bill failed to pass during the regular session because it failed to achieve anything resembling a consensus. It was bad bill then and it is a bad bill now; the only difference is that they don’t need 21 of us to get it through.”

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Texas Observer 6/15/11

Denying the Future

(snip)
During a memorable, 10-hour House debate in early May, the passions of outnumbered Hispanic lawmakers reached a peak. Some cried. Some shouted. Some tried to reason with Anglo Republican legislators determined to “do something” about illegal immigration—even if their bill was likely unconstitutional, and despite opposition from local law enforcement. San Antonio Democrat Trey Martinez Fischer, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, told reporters after the debate: “This bill is the single largest assault on being Latino in Texas.”

It was powerful rhetoric, and partly true. The bill making sanctuary cities illegal, which ultimately failed, had serious civil-rights implications (only to be revived during special session, where it will most likely pass—see blog update). But a far greater assault on Hispanic Texans came in more pedestrian form: the state budget. Fifteen billion dollars in cuts to public schools and health and human services programs will dampen the dreams and impoverish the lives of millions of Texans. The cuts will disproportionately affect Hispanics, who make up a majority of the state’s schoolchildren and Medicaid recipients—and who are, literally, the future of the state. As Democratic Rep. Mike Villarreal of San Antonio told the Observer during the final week of budget debate, “We need to be making budget decisions that are right by our children, no matter their ethnicity or race. That being said, the kids most reliant on state investment are Hispanic kids because they make up the largest share of younger Texans.”

For years, Steve Murdock, the state’s demographer under Gov. George W. Bush, had been telling anyone who would listen that Texas was heading for ruin if the state didn’t spend the money to educate its growing Hispanic population. Texas would become a poorer, less competitive state, he warned. He told lawmakers over and over—at hearings, policy forums and private meetings—about the dire consequences if they did nothing to address the gaping education and income divides.

He never thought they’d make it worse.

To Murdock’s dismay, that’s what the Legislature has done. The 2012-13 budget, which is still being negotiated in a special session, relies heavily on spending cuts to close a $23 billion shortfall. It chops $4 billion from public schools, $1 billion from higher education and underfunds Medicaid by $5 billion. “I’m very, very disappointed,” Murdock says. “This is not something that Texas can afford to do, and the risks we’re taking come with very severe consequences.”