courtesy: CNBC
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Republican Governor Greg Abbot of Texas signed a bill into law on Monday, which makes entering Texas illegally a state crime, an extraordinary step in the hard-fought legal battle between the state and the federal government over efforts to curtail the illegal immigration.
The measure, SB 4, grants local law enforcement the power to arrest migrants and judges the ability to issue orders to remove them to Mexico. It has sent ripples of fear throughout the Latino community in Texas, which makes up 40% of the state’s population. The move was also condemned by the civil rights organizations and immigration advocacy groups after the Texas legislature passed it last month.
The ongoing surge of migration at the US-Mexico border has placed immense pressure on local and federal resources.
Recently, during one of his campaign speeches in Nevada former president Donald Trump also touched the subject. He promised in his speech that he will execute the biggest ever deportation program ever seen in American history.
The former president’s speech comes weeks ahead of GOP nomination voting. Previously, in 2016, the illegal immigrant topic had bagged him GOP presidential nomination.