Our Undocumented Students -- Part 2 The Threat of the State

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A version of this is published in the current issue of the LSCS Advocate.
Part 1 is here.

Our Undocumented Students -- Part 2

The Threat of the State



It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.

― John Rawls, A Theory of Justice


In May 2017, Texas Governor Abbott signed a bill meant to ban “sanctuary cities” in Texas by requiring that all local police — including college campus police — cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The bill makes it illegal for a local authority to have any policy that stops an officer from requesting information about immigration status, and it threatens jail time for any leaders who don’t honor requests to hold inmates who may be subject to deportation. Opponents of the bill — including lawmakers, college faculty, immigrant rights groups, and many law enforcement officials — point out that such a law creates a situation in which even a minor offense creates the possibility of deportation.

At this printing, the State of Texas defends its Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) before the Fifth Circuit Court, and the Governor has consistently maligned immigrants as “gang members and dangerous criminals.”1 Despite this rhetoric of criminality, migrants are less likely to commit a crime than “native” born Americans, as we discussed in the previous issue of The Advocate.

This summer, while Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled a temporary stay against SB 4, the decision let stand one of the most controversial portions of the law, which allows police officers to question the immigration status of people they detain — the “Show your Papers” provision. While the provision is similar to one struck from Arizona law requiring all officers to ask for immigration status from detained individuals, the Texas law skirts the issue by suggesting this action. This relationship of police officers and federal enforcement still permits Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ask LSCS Police about student status. Thus, our college students and their families are still threatened by the State.

So, while the Abbot-Patrick-Paxton axis argues for “safety,” Judge Garcia concluded that SB 4 "will erode public trust and make many communities and neighborhoods less safe."2 Several Texas cities leaders criticized the governor, understanding that SB 4 will lead to rampant discrimination and make communities less safe, particularly as it acts as a deterrent for communities with undocumented people to report crime. That's why police chiefs and mayors have been among the harshest critics of the governor — they recognize that this local-federal police collaboration will harm, not help, our communities.

To understand SB 4, try to understand the inane rationale: SB 4 “requires local government entities and law enforcement officials to comply with federal immigration laws and detainer requests, and creates criminal penalties for entities that do not enforce the law.”3 When Abbott signed the law, he argued that

There are deadly consequences to not enforcing the law, and Texas has now become a state where those practices are not tolerated. With this bill we are doing away with those that seek to promote lawlessness in Texas.4
Attorney General Ken Paxton (while defending his own felony indictments), argued that "Texas has the sovereign authority and responsibility to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens.”5 Not surprisingly, most police chiefs disagree and show that SB 4 makes migrant communities less safe.6 Sadly, higher education leadership was not as vocally opposed to the legislation as were our police chiefs. Certainly, SB 4 does not make a college campus more safe. Few of our students have time to both study Algebra and actively engage in Mara Salvatrucha-13.

Further, SB 4 attacks all migrants, including those who have never committed any felonies. Understand that crossing the border without permission is a misdemeanor, not a felony,7 and it is an error when pundits call undocumented migrants “criminals.” Consider how we would resist if the federal marshals were to come to the college campus and arrest all workers — all those students and staff and faculty and administration — with misdemeanors.

In Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court held that states (that means you, Texas) may not make their own laws criminalizing undocumented migrants. Moreover, because over-policing in schools impacts all communities of color, effective sanctuary policies must also include dismantling the racially discriminatory school-to-prison pipeline, which the Texas Legislature and Governor Abbott ignore as the real concern about safe communities.

To be clear, Abbott lied when he signed the law on 7 May 2017: He argued that “only criminals” should worry about being asked for their papers under SB 4. Now that the current president has named Thomas Homan as Director of ICE, we should expect even more thuggish aggressions, from the man who said “No one is off the table”8 and that all undocumented immigrants “should be afraid.” No college student is off the table. We should be afraid.

The American Federation of Teachers opposed SB 4, claiming that colleges would be distracted from their mission and obligation to educate, and that the law creates an atmosphere of suspicion and fear on campus for students and their families that would impede learning.9

Under SB 4, ICE has the authority reach out into the student records of Lone Star College, identify the hundreds of undocumented students, and seize students from their homes, or the campus. Understand that under the current Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy, over 400 undocumented migrants are arrested daily, tearing apart families, children separated from their parents, lacking true due process. The Immigration Court does not provide public defense, and many impoverished migrants cannot afford legal counsel. ICE’s policy is increasingly aggressive and ruthless — they’ve detained parents while dropping students to school and deported even DACA-authorized university students.10

To be clear, SB 4 is another brick in the panopticon assault on laborers in Texas. The Texas labor movement has a proud tradition of fighting for working families — immigrants and those who were born here, alike. In resistance, from striking pecan shellers in San Antonio nearly 80 years ago, to striking steel workers in the Texas Golden Triangle, to state pressure on teachers and college faculty and staff, Texas working families always have each others’ backs.

A Drama in Five Acts
What does SB 4 mean to the undocumented college student:

  1. ICE sees headlines such as “Lone Star College designated Top 25 College for Hispanics” and ICE collaborates with the college to identify which hundreds of students are undocumented.
  2. Hundreds of college students detained in private/profiteer centers,11 most likely in Montgomery County, for an undetermined time. College students fail all courses and fail to graduate or complete any certificate. The community lacks important trained and educated adults.
  3. The college students appear before the Immigration Court, without defense because ICE does not provide public defense services.
  4. College students are separated from their families; college students lose their employment, further impoverishing the remaining family in Harris County. College students are deported to a country which is, most often, unknown, because they were raised in Houston.
  5. Our former college students will live in deep poverty, threatened by extreme violence, even murder.12,, 13

But this drama is not a play. This is not hyperbole. ICE deportation of college students has already started. This is real. This is Texas.

What we can do:

  • As citizens:
    • Demand Congress pass a “clean” DREAM Act (that is, a DREAM act without legislated  increases in deportations and ICE enforcement). The 2017 Congressional session ends on December 15th. That gives us a month to pass the Dream Act in the House and in the Senate. Immigrant youth can’t afford to wait any longer. Call your Congressional Representative today.
  • As educators:
    • Listen to student lives and demonstrate empathy to lives and histories that are dissimilar to our own.
    • Become much more aware of migration, and bring multiple disciplines to address our communities’ and students’ lives. Migration is very complex, and as trained educators, we must bring our academic disciplines to inform the community.
    • Bring migration stories into our curriculums as a real intellectual space that bridges textbooks to our students.
  • As a union:
  • As a college:
    • Bridge the faculty and the community in a common town square that addresses migration. The community relies on and believes too many “mistruths,” but an institution of higher education like Lone Star College should lead the community with local academic research, local stories, local analysis, and local problem-solving.

In our future issue, we will address the legal and philosophical questions of “unjust laws” and how all of us are threatened.

Endnotes

1. “Governor Abbott Statement On Court Ruling.” Office of the Texas Governor. 31 August 2017.  https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-statement-on-court-ruling
3.  “Texas Bans Sanctuary Cities.”  Office of the Texas Governor. 7 May 2017. <https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/Texas-Bans-Sanctuary-Cities>
4.  “Texas Bans Sanctuary Cities.”  Office of the Texas Governor. 7 May 2017. <https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/Texas-Bans-Sanctuary-Cities >
5.   “Judge Temporarily Blocks Immigration Enforcement Law.” Texas Tribune. 30 August 2017. <https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/30/judge-temporarily-blocks-sanctuary-cities-law/ >
6.  “Police Chiefs: SB 4 is a 'Lose-Lose' for Texas.” Houston Chronicle. 30 April 2017. <http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Police-chiefs-SB-4-is-a-lose-lose-for-Texas-11110336.php >
7.  Illegally crossing the border is a misdemeanor, not felony. “It's a misdemeanor offense that carries fines and no more than six months in prison.” (US Code 8 U.S. Code § 1325)
8. Gillman, Todd. “Trump Picks Immigration Hardliner Tom Homan as ICE Director Dallas News. 14 November 2017.
9.  “Taking a Stand on Controversial Immigration Bill in State Senate.” Texas AFT. 2 February 2017. <http://www.texasaft.org/hotline/taking-stand-controversial-immigration-bill-state-senate/>
10.  “It’s Time to Stop the Growing Fear of ICE in American Schools. The Hill. 28 August 2017.  <http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/immigration/348325-its-time-to-stop-the-growing-fear-of-ice-in-american-schools>
11.  Carson, Bethany and Eleana Diaz. “Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota.” Grassroots Leadership. April 2015. <https://grassrootsleadership.org/reports/payoff-how-congress-ensures-private-prison-profit-immigrant-detention-quota >
12.  Autullo, Ryan and Taylor Goldenstein. “Immigrant Taken by ICE from Austin Courthouse was Killed in Mexico.” Austin American Statesman. 19 September 2017. <http://www.mystatesman.com/news/immigrant-taken-ice-from-austin-courthouse-was-killed-mexico/bfntga0HYA378iitM4VT8J/ >
13. “He Went to ICE to Tell Agents He had Gotten into College. Now He and His Brother have been Deported.” Washington Post. 2 August 2017. < https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/he-went-to-ice-to-tell-agents-he-had-gotten-into-college-now-he-and-his-brother-have-been-deported/2017/08/02/11b10772-779a-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?utm_term=.18ce175ca90e>


Be strong, and courageous.
Dixi et salvavi animam meam
Twitter @comstone

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