Local groups mobilize to fight immigration bills

November 23, 2010 10:16 PM
Elizabeth Findell
The Monitor

SAN JUAN — Local immigration advocates sprang to action this month when lawmakers in Austin began to introduce legislation to consider in the coming year.

Equal Voice Network, which consists of 10 social advocacy groups, is mobilizing to get local government, business and other entities to oppose state bills that they say are anti-immigrant, racist and harmful to the Rio Grande Valley.

Several bills recently introduced in the Texas Legislature deal with immigration.

One would make being in the U.S. illegally an act of criminal trespass. Some would require police to check the immigration status of people arrested or detained, like legislation implemented in Arizona. One would require public schools to keep track of undocumented students. Some would prohibit governments from using public money to print information in a language other than English. Others would deny state money to so-called sanctuary cities where immigration law is not fully enforced.

“With the urgency that legislators immediately began introducing anti-immigrant bills, we realized we needed to act with urgency,â€