FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2023
CONTACT: Emily Witt (she/hers), [email protected]
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Senate Committee on Border Security today passed HB 4 out of committee. It will now head to the Senate floor for debate. The legislation would allow law enforcement to remove undocumented people from Texas and drop them at a port of entry.
Ahead of today’s hearing, Texas Rising Action and Texas Freedom Network held a virtual phone bank, during which young Texans gathered to contact members of the Border Security Committee and other Texas Senators, urging them to vote no on HB 4 during every step of the legislative process.
Texas Freedom Network Interim Political Director Rocío Fierro-Pérez (she/her/ella) said the following while testifying during the committee hearing:
“This bill is dangerous — not only for our immigrant and border communities but for all Texans. HB 4 encourages racial profiling and targets both migrants and US citizens.
“We deserve policies that invest in our communities instead of criminalizing us. Migrants are mothers, daughters, uncles, abuelitas, hermanos — migrants are people, and bills like this encourage the rhetoric that led a gunman to murder people in my community at an El Paso Walmart just four years ago. Texas legislators should be looking for real solutions to the persisting humanitarian crisis.”
Texas Rising Action Statewide Program Manager Lexy Garcia (she/her) issued the following response:
“HB 4 threatens to dehumanize, terrorize, and tear apart families. We were proud to flood legislative offices with a strong wave of resistance, voicing our opposition to HB 4 and every other piece of racist legislation that serves to traumatize our communities.
“So many Texans call our border communities home, yet lawmakers continue to spend billions on criminalizing people and demonizing an entire region where we are safe and thriving. Our state’s money should be used on programs and assistance that help people, not harm them.”
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The Texas Freedom Network (tfn.org) is a grassroots organization of religious and community leaders and young Texans building an informed and effective movement for equality and social justice.
Texas Rising Action, a project of the Texas Freedom Network, builds the power of a rising generation of young Texans, with an emphasis on communities of color, by advocating for change in the cities and towns where they live and at the ballot box. To learn more, visit txrising.org.
