Immigrant rights groups sue Texas over new immigration law

HOUSTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Immigrant rights groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Texas's new law that makes illegal immigration a state crime.

According to the plaintiffs, the bill violates the federal constitution since Congress has given the federal government sole authority over immigration enforcement. It will also prevent immigrants from requesting asylum in the country, a civil right they have regardless of how they enter the United States.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the lawsuit in an Austin federal court on behalf of El Paso County, the largest border county in Texas, as well as two other immigrant rights organizations -- El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed the highly controversial bill, which is scheduled to take effect in March, to police immigration.

Under the law, state law enforcement officers will be authorized to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally.

Afterward, the detained migrants could either agree to a Texas judge's order to leave the country or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges carrying a punishment of up to six months in prison. Repeat offenders could face more serious felony charges with a punishment of two to 20 years in jail.

"Governor Abbott's efforts to circumvent the federal immigration system and deny people the right to due process is not only unconstitutional, but also dangerously prone to error, and will disproportionately harm Black and Brown people regardless of their immigration status," said Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

Up to 30 former U.S. immigration judges, who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, signed a letter earlier this month condemning the measure as unconstitutional.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, there were more than 2.4 million apprehensions across the U.S.-Mexico border, breaking the record of 2.3 million from a year earlier.