The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed a lawsuit Sunday against several Texas officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, over House Bill 11 which made harboring illegal aliens against the law.
The Texas law which went into effect last September was part of a greater $800 million border security effort. The bill was designed in part to help increase the amount of state police and technology on the southern border. The bill provides funds for continuing the operations of Texas National Guard troops on the border. They will be there until the Texas Department of Public Safety can train, hire, and place 250 troopers there.
After signing the bill, Abbott said, “Those are national, federal-based issues that we demand the United States federal government address and solve. Texas is doing what it can do by passing this border security plan.”
The lawsuit in fact takes issue with Texas regulating immigration. The plaintiffs argue that immigration is a federal issue and thus the state violated the U.S Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel, said, “Enacted on dubious legal advice, HB 11 accomplishes nothing but to embroil Texas in litigation and to divide the state in the name of political gamesmanship.” He added, “Moreover, the law targets humanitarian service providers and property owners simply conducting business with other Texans.”
One of these “humanitarian service providers” that “simply conduct business with other Texans” that Saenz is referring to is Jonathan Ryan. He is the executive director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
According to the lawsuit: “Ryan provides shelter to immigrant women and children who are not authorized to be present in the U.S. and lack lawful immigration status. Many of the immigrant women and children sheltered by Plaintiff Ryan…entered the U.S. without authorization and are in federal removal proceedings.”
Remember next election. Democrats are against a Texas law that makes it illegal to harbor undocumented immigrants. https://t.co/q5PxlWYzXq
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 25, 2016
Besides Abbott, other defendants in the suit include Steven C. McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the members of the Texas Public Safety Commission.
MALDEF is confident the law will be struck down due to the fate of similar illegal alien harboring laws in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. In a December Texas House committee hearing Texas Deputy Attorney General Brantley Starr argued that, ““you do have the ability to create state-level offenses that have an immigration element to them as long as they are sufficiently unique.”
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