Texas House Republican Matt Rinaldi called ICE on hundreds of peaceful demonstrators who were protesting the state’s racist, anti-immigrant “show me your papers” legislation, telling House Democrats, “fuck them, I called ICE.” According to the Observer, Rinaldi also threatened to “put a bullet” in a colleague’s head after sparking a full-on screaming match with other legislators on the House floor and claiming he was physically threatened. But according to one legislator, “no assault occurred.”
Rinaldi did confirm in a Facebook post that he called ICE, ironically backing up what protesters have been saying all along—“show me your papers” isn’t at all about community safety, but instead about racism directed at Latinos and immigrants. ”The true intentions of SB4 came to light today on the House floor,” said state Rep. Ramon Romero. “Matt Rinaldi looked into a House gallery full of Americans exercising their first amendment rights against SB4—Americans of all ages and ethnicity—and he only saw ‘illegals’’:
Earlier, at the beginning of the incident, Rinaldi told Romero on the House floor that the hundreds of protesters who were chanting in the gallery were a “disgrace,” Romero told the Observer.
Romero said that prompted Representative Cesar Blanco to tell Rinaldi that Italian immigrants “are just like us,” and Rinaldi responded, “Yeah, but we love our country.”“Fuck them, I called ICE,” Rinaldi said, according to Romero.
“He saw a bunch of people who look Latino, and he assumed they were undocumented,” Rep. Romero said. “So how can he say SB4 won’t lead to racial profiling?”
If it goes into effect in September, SB4 will stand to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of Latinos and immigrants in Texas, subjecting them to immigration checks by local law enforcement, even if they’re stopped for something as simple as a broken taillight. “I fear that many children in our community will to experience this terror every time they see an Austin police officer,” wrote Austin Councilman Greg Casar in a recent op-ed. “This is wrong. We fund our police to protect us from danger and defend our rights, not to tear apart families.”
But while there’s much to fear, immigrant rights groups are also gearing up for a “summer of resistance,” filing a lawsuit against the legislation and drawing one thousands protesters to flood the state capitol and protest in front of Gov. Greg Abbott’s mansion:
There were banner drops, chanting, dancing, and singing, with a full-out concert happening outside the steps of the Capitol for advocates who hadn’t been let in due to crowd restrictions. The weekend of action actually started at 3 am Sunday, as 50 protesters met in front of the governor’s mansion to blare mariachi music through a megaphone for about an hour, holding signs that read “no bedtime for bigots,” “goodnight SB 4” and “you’ve disturbed our peace, so we’re disturbing yours.”
America’s Voice has a great round-up of the action here.
As the Washington Post notes, “the fight over sanctuary cities isn’t over. In April, a federal judge said President Trump’s executive order on sanctuary cities is unconstitutional, and a barrage of legal challenges to the new Texas law is expected soon.” Americans have every right to protest this racist bullshit—and yes, Donald Trump and Matt Rinaldi, that includes undocumented people—but apparently threatening to shoot people and siccing ICE on brown folks is going to be the new (and snowflakey) Republican norm. Just putting it out there that Rinaldi won his seat in the Texas House by a razor-thin 51-49 margin last year.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017 · 7:07:15 PM +00:00
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Gabe Ortiz
Rep. Ramon Romero tweeted a call his office received from someone saying they “stand with Matt Rinaldi, and fuck the illegal alien spics." The caller ends the conversation with “white power." Nice supporters you’ve got there, Matt.
