The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, is expected to sign a bill that would make crossing into the state without documentation a crime, one of the harshest immigration policies in the US to date.
The bill, SB 4, was passed by the Texas house and is awaiting final approval from Abbott.
On Wednesday, Abbott said that he looked forward to signing the bill, in a post to X, formally known as Twitter.
“I look forward to signing Senate Bill 4, which creates penalties for illegal entry into Texas & authorizes the removal of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border,” Abbott said.
In recent months, Abbott, a Republican, has launched a series of controversial programs targeting migrants, including bussing migrants to Democratic-led cities without proper coordination and Operation Lone Star, a multimillion-dollar initiative that has placed razor wire and thousands of troops at the Texas-Mexico border.
SB 4 makes it unlawful for anyone to cross into Texas from another country without papers a state misdemeanor that is punishable by up to two years in prison.
The law also requires a state judge to order a person to return to the country they crossed from in lieu of prosecution.
If a person refuses to return, they could face a felony charge and up to 20 years in prison.
The bill also gives Texas officers the ability to arrest anyone who they believe has crossed into the state illegally, a fact that advocates and Democrats have decried as racist.
Legal advocates have questioned the bill’s legality, as removing noncitizens from the US falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Experts have also warned that the new bill could cause a dispute with Mexico, as the country and others could choose not to cooperate with state officials.
Democratic Texas representatives and advocates soundly denounced the bill as problematic and a waste of state funds.
The Texas representative Jolanda Jones called SB 4 and its supporters “racist”.
“It’s not all right to be racist. I will stop pulling the race card when you stop being racist,” she said.
The Texas representative Ramón Romero Jr posted a video on social media denouncing the passing of SB 4 and emphasizing the importance of winning elections.
“We fought really hard but sadly on issues like this, their ears are closed on the other side,” Romero said in a video posted to X, referring to Republicans. “We can say anything and they’re just not listening.”
In a statement to X, the Texas Civil Rights Project, a social justice non-profit, said the bill was “creating an entirely new, separate, unequal immigration system in the US” and allowing police to “be both judge and jury to determine a person’s right to stay in the US”.
Immigrant rights organizations also rallied outside of the Texas House on Tuesday to protest the vote on SB 4.
SB 4 was considered as apart of a separate legislative session requested by Abbott for several anti-immigration bills.
