Houston United Blasts HB12 Passage

Houston Unido, a coalition comprised of 16 civil rights and Hispanic advocacy organizations held a press conference today on the steps of Houston City Hall to blast the passage of HB12 (the Arizona-like immigration bill) in the Texas House of Representatives.

Houston Unido also voiced its opposition to SB 9, which would needlessly force local law enforcement agencies to become a part of the Secure Communities program. Secure Communities is a deeply flawed immigrant round-up program which the state of Illinois recently rejected. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently changed its tune when it decided that local agencies could no longer “opt-out” of the program; however, ICE has also failed to rectify the various failures and abuses of the program.

HB12 was passed with all Republicans voting for the bill and all Democrats voting against the bill by the Texas House after amendments were limited to a few and further debate was curtailed.

Stay tuned for future actions and news.