TEXAS, USA — A major change could be coming to Texas law as a border security bill has been sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) would make entering Texas illegally from a foreign country a state crime. It also allows state and local police to ask anyone in Texas to show their passport to prove citizenship.
"I think it could have serious effects, especially the closer you live to the Texas-Mexico border and if you would have legitimate concern about needing to prove your citizenship and again, I think that that would fall unduly on Hispanic Texans," Political Science Professor Pat Flavin said.
Flavin said most people don't carry their passports around and there's legitimate constitutional questions on if federal law enforcement can ask people about their citizenship, and it is definitely not allowed at a state level after a 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court ruled that immigration is a federal enforcement matter and not a state matter," Flavin said. "Certainly, if it's a state government official, or at least the way the courts interpreted the law up till now, that wouldn't be allowed and so it would be sort of the everyday changes to how people go about their lives."
The political science professor expects SB 4 to face many setbacks like lawsuits and rulings on it from the conservative Supreme Court
Under SB 4, the charge could be enhanced to a felony if the migrant is accused of other crimes or refuses to comply with a judge’s order to return to Mexico. The bill also allows immigrants to present any evidence that they are in the country legally during the prosecution. The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor charge is a year in jail; for a felony the penalty is two to 20 years in prison.
It's not clear when Governor Abbott will sign the bill.