Remember all the work you did against the bill that would eliminate “sanctuary cities” in Texas?  Well, Governor Perry decided to bring it back up in a special session because apparently its defeat in the regular session was not enough for him.  

And let me tell you just how dirty this has gotten.  The leader of an anti-immigrant group has been quoted in the San Antonio Express-News as saying, “If you want to know why we can't pass legislation in Texas, it's because we have 37, no, 36 Hispanics in the Legislature.  So, that's part of our problem, and we need to change those numbers. 

I’m sorry, but whatever happened to a representative democracy?  It seems perfectly fine to me that in a state where 37.6% of the population is Latino, 36 out of 150 representatives would be Hispanic.  That is only 24%, so really you could argue for even more.  

But instead of attacking legislators for their ethnic makeup, let’s get down to what this is really about.  This bill would have catastrophic consequences on the state of Texas.  Similar to Arizona’s flawed SB 1070, the bill would prevent local police departments from keeping Texas cities and neighborhoods safe by requiring them to enforce federal immigration laws. 

Despite the fact that SB 9 was opposed by the police chiefs and sheriffs of every major city, faith leaders, business owners, workers, families, and human rights advocates, Senate Republicans towed the party line and voted yes on SB 9 Tuesday.  So we must make it clear to the Texas House where we stand. 

Ask your representative to keep Texas safe and vote NO on SB 9. 

We will not stand by and let our politicians cave to the anti-Latino political pandering of extremists.  Texas can do better.