EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Senate Bill 4, passed during the third special session of the Texas Legislature, went into effect Tuesday, Feb. 6.
According to the Texas Legislature’s website, the bill aims to make human smuggling a third-degree felony with a 10-year minimum prison sentence. The smuggling sentence could be reduced to five years if the alleged smuggler cooperates with law enforcement on other investigations, or if the person being smuggled was related to the smuggler.
Opponents of the bill raised their concerns at a news conference where human rights advocacy groups like Las Americas, Estrella Del Paso, Hope Border Institute, Texas Rising, Border Network for Human Rights and County Commissioner David Stout gathered to express their concerns over the legal implications this bill will have on migrants and residents in the Borderland.
Photo by Shaun Felice/KTSM
“The law expands to say that if you are assisting immigrants, by driving them to church, a hospital, or if you are a shelter and you need to transport somebody for emergency services to a clinic, you could be covered under this law, harmed, and have jail time,” said Jennifer Babaie, the legal director at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
Babaie added that this bill could also exacerbate high-speed chases which are already a problem here in El Paso, she said. There have already been 300 alone in the county causing more than 30 injuries that involved children, she said.
She did not give a time frame for when those high-speed chases have happened.
Adolpho Telles, the El Paso County Republican Party chairman, said that people who came into this country without proper documentation are breaking the law, and this bill will impact them, but no differently than it would impact other criminals who are already in the United States.
Stout, the county commissioner for Precinct 2, said SB4 will cause jails to be even more overcrowded.
Stout said this bill will lead to more arrests and El Paso simply does not have the capacity to hold more inmates, saying the County would have to build an additional facility, something that would cost millions of dollars.
“It could cost between $300 to $500 million to construct the new jail facility,” Stout said.
Stout also said no extra money was allocated to counties as part of this new law, meaning local communities will have to pay for any added expenses they incur.
“It costs us between $100 to $130 a day to keep somebody in jail,” Stout said.
Telles said money local governments are using to support immigration could be spent on things like law enforcement and jails.
Although SB4 went into effect on Tuesday, advocates for migrants say they are not going to stop standing up for their civil rights and defending them.
“We are here to stand by the immigrant community, by the Black and brown community and we’re not giving up on Texas,” Babaie said. “I encourage people to call their representatives and let them know that you are not a fan of SB4, and you are not a fan of Operation Lonestar so that they don’t think that they have a blank check to keep passing these laws.”
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