We are writing to express our continuing concern over anti-immigrant rhetoric espoused by Texas State officials and ongoing efforts by the Texas state government to conduct immigration enforcement. We welcome the Department of Justice in joining our efforts to challenge the constitutionality of Texas Senate Bill 4 (88th Legislature, 4th Special Session) that is set to take effect next month, on March 5, 2024.
As expressed in our complaint, the County of El Paso will experience significant harm from the implementation of S.B. 4 if it is allowed to go into effect. This new law will disproportionately affect border communities like El Paso, yielding irreparable damage in the lives of our residents. By creating a new state criminal offense and tasking Texas law enforcement officials without executing immigration charges, our community will suffer from the wide array of unintended and intended consequences alike.
If we fail to act, this law will put a strain on our jail and court systems, put our residents at risk of being racially profiled, and continue to jeopardize public safety by perpetrating high-speed chases and practices that threaten the lives of border residents.
As you know, the community that we represent was forever changed when a gunman drove 600 miles and took the lives of 23 beautiful souls at a Walmart in El Paso on August 3, 2019. On the shooter’s manifesto, he dangerously echoed anti-immigrant rhetoric and repeated the false narrative from both former President Trump and Governor Abbott - “taking our border back, taking matters into our own hands to stop the invasion of migrants.” This violent sentiment has only exacerbated through hateful laws such as SB 4 - not only endangering the lives of migrants and U.S. citizens equally, but also adding to the financial burden of our local taxpayers.
Along with the passage of these anti-immigrant laws, and the implementation of Operation Lone Star, there has been substantial increase in high-speed chases by the Texas Department of Public Safety in pursuit of fugitive vehicles suspected of transporting migrants. In 2022 in El Paso alone, there were 55 high-speed pursuits resulting in two citizen injuries and two officer injuries. Last year, that number increased to 268 pursuits in our city. Of these 268 pursuits, 25 ended in a traffic crash, with some leading to death and injury. These practices endanger our residents, and not just the targets themselves.
The increased presence of DPS troopers in our community has also created unnecessary hurdles for border trade and trucks trying to cross the border. Since the Governor ordered state troopers to inspect all commercial vehicles, after Customs and Border Protection have already cleared them, crossing times have increased tremendously, without any significant findings or seizure of illicit substances. These added multiple safety inspections of cargo trucks have drastically slowed down trade and transportation at our ports of entry, often leading to these trucks opting to drive around El Paso and cross through New Mexico instead. This means a significant loss of income to our county, along with added costs of fuel time and resources to the supply chain - resulting in millions in economic loss for our state.
Additionally, the environmental impact of 18-wheeler trucks with idling engines waiting in mile-long lines to cross the border cannot be overlooked and adds to the burden that border towns like El Paso are already bearing. We cannot continue to strain the resources of border counties for political gain without accountability.
The implementation of this and other anti-immigrant laws also creates a false sense of danger and discourages entrepreneurs and professionals from considering El Paso as a safe place to do business. When our community is making headlines for the need to increase “border security” and misleadingly sounding the alarm of being unsafe, entire industries are dissuaded from doing business in Texas. If we want to foster healthy economic growth, we must dispel the myth that migrants create unsafe communities, especially when cities like El Paso, Laredo, and McAllen have been constantly ranked among the safest in the country.
Another growing concern with the imminent implementation of S.B. 4 is the exorbitant cost that our own county would be forced to incur. Overall, Texas counties will have to foot the bill for the state's own estimation of 72,000 additional arrests per year with potentially 8,000 additional arrests per year just in El Paso County. That means that we would need to build 400 new jail beds with an estimated cost of $162 million. Our operational budget would need to increase by $42 million to support the impacts of this new law, without accounting for the loss of revenue from housing federal detainees in our facilities.
For all these reasons, we joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the National ACLU, and the Texas Civil Rights Project in a lawsuit challenging the legality of S.B. 4. As our community continues to recover from the devastating tragedy from August 3, we urge you to challenge the false and hateful anti-immigrant narrative perpetrated by our Governor and former President Trump. We appreciate the ongoing negotiations on bipartisan legislation, such as the Dignity Act, by Congresswomen Veronica Escobar and Maria Salazar to fix our broken immigration system, and we remain hopeful that such negotiations reject further militarization of border communities like El Paso.
Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The above letter was sent to President Biden by Ricardo A. Samaniego, El Paso County Judge; Carlos Leon, El Paso County Commissioner, Precinct 1; David Stout, El Paso County Commissioner, Precinct 2; Iliana Holguin, El Paso County Commissioner, Precinct 3; and Sergio Coronado, El Paso County Commissioner, Precinct 4.
