A Texas lawmaker broke down during a passionate speech condemning Senate Bill 4, “arguably the most draconian anti-civil rights, anti-immigrant state bill in modern political history,” according to immigrant rights advocates. Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu called the issue “painful for me because I am an immigrant:”
“My parents are immigrants. I represent a district filled with immigrants. Some are here as refugees, some are here as citizens, some are here without papers. But they are all my people.”
SB 4, which is expected to be signed into law by Texas’s anti-immigrant governor, basically amounts to a “supersized version of Arizona’s infamous, ‘show me your papers’ law” that will only encourage racial profiling and terrorize the most vulnerable by allowing immigration enforcement at domestic violence shelters and other sensitive locations. Rep. Wu has been among the many advocates who slammed the proposal, including another House lawmaker who went on a four-day fast. United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, called SB 4 “a white supremacist’s field day.”
In a recent op-ed, Dallas Police Chief David Pughes and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo wrote that “SB 4 is not the answer to immigration reform; rather it is political pandering that will make our communities more dangerous.” During his speech, Wu “compared SB 4 to other racist policies in history that singled out immigrants. He brought up the Chinese Exclusion Act, which provided a 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration, as well as the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II:”
“Those are also laws that were created out of fear, would you not agree? Those are laws created out of hatred and misunderstanding,” he said.
Wu has since released a statement on the passage of the bill, further stressing his opposition. He argued that the legislation wouldn’t just target criminals, but also children, victims of crimes and those who have served in the armed forces. The representative also described his personal fears on the subject and said that the bill would be a reminder to his sons “that the law will treat them with suspicion,” concluding with his disappointment over the issue.
“Democrats were united in their opposition to the legislation because this felt like an attack on the diverse communities that we represent and that make Texas great,” Wu wrote in the press release. “At the end of the day, all we asked for was mercy for our communities; mercy for our families; and mercy for our children. But no mercy was given.”
Rep. Wu’s emotional speech below is a must-watch.