The ACLU is advising travelers to avoid Texas after the state passed SB4, a new law that allows police officers to investigate a person’s immigration status during a routine traffic stop. The group says that the law will lead to “widespread racial profiling baseless scrutiny, and illegal arrests of citizens and non-citizens alike.” The travel alert applies to both U.S. citizens and those who might be considering a trip to Texas from abroad .

“We plan to fight this racist and wrongheaded law in the courts and in the streets. Until we defeat it, everyone traveling in or to Texas needs to be aware of what’s in store for them,” Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. “The Lone Star State will become a ‘show me your papers’ state, where every interaction with law enforcement can become a citizenship interrogation and potentially an illegal arrest.”

SB4 goes into effect on September 1, 2017. We recently profiled the ACLU and how it’s leading the fight against discriminatory laws during the Trump administration.



[Photo: Flickr user Matthew Rutledge]