AUSTIN, TX — In response to a ruling halting most parts of Senate Bill 4, a vicious anti-immigrant law passed in Texas in May, Local Progress issued the following statement from Co-Director Sarah Johnson:
“Senate Bill 4 is not just an attack on immigrants – it is an attack on local control. It is an attack on the power of cities to control their own destiny and pass policies that reflect the needs of their own communities.
Make no mistake, SB 4 was passed because the power of cities in Texas was already on the rise. Texas cities have far outpaced the state in finding solutions to today’s most pressing problems, be it protecting immigrants from deportation or providing working families with higher wages.
Today’s ruling showed that, when cities come together, there are few limits to what local lawmakers can achieve. It demonstrates that elected leaders, working in partnership with grassroots groups, can forge a new model of resistance, one that builds from the city level up. Local Progress members from every corner of the state spearheaded the fight against SB 4, and they did so in the face of threats to remove them from their jobs or to withhold funding for their cities. We are incredibly proud of their achievement.
The fight against SB 4 is not yet over, and will not be until this law is fully repealed. But today is a victory for cities, and proof that united they can overcome seemingly unstoppable obstacles. Today, cities won the fight in Texas. Tomorrow, they will win against Trump.”
Local Progress is the network of local lawmakers who led the fight against Senate Bill 4, including Austin City Councilmembers Greg Casar, Ann Kitchen, and Delia Garza; San Antonio Councilmember Rey Saldaña; Houston Councilmember Robert Gallegos in Houston, Dallas Councilmember Philip Kingston, and El Paso County Commissioner David Stout.
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