James C. Harrington

Guest columnist

Dear Amazon:

There’s much flurry in the Lone Star State about possibly locating your HQ2 here. Some Texas cities are among the 238 North American locations that have submitted proposals, hoping you will locate there.

However, no matter how sweet a city’s offer might be, I respectfully urge you not to locate in Texas because of the state’s stiff anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant climate.

The current hostility toward Hispanics and immigrants is part of a long, pervasive, and poisonous history that has infected Texas since its beginning. But, unlike other areas of the country, Texas is not trying to undo its past, but to double down on it.

Particularly culpable are our “unholy trinity” of Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Here are four examples for you to consider. They are hardly the actions of the “friendly” state.

First, Texas passed a voter ID law to make it more difficult for people to vote. After decades of minority groups struggling to win the franchise, Texas politicians are trying to take it away again. A federal judge has ruled the legislature deliberately passed the law to disenfranchise minority voters.

Second, not only do the politicians try to keep minority folks from voting, they gerrymander virtually any district, whether congressional or local school boards, to make sure minority folks can’t elect their own representatives. Some of Texas ‘congressional districts are so bizarrely drawn they make the notorious 1812 Massachusetts “gerrymander” seem like coherent art. Here, too, the federal courts found our legislature engaging in conscious discrimination.

Third is the infamous Senate Bill 4, which the governor signed in the dark of night, over the strong remonstrance of the Hispanic community.

SB-4, Texas’ “show me your papers” law, which a federal court has temporarily blocked, is the worst discrimination law any state has passed in recent times. It opens the door wide to racial profiling and has already begun to drive immigrant victims of crime, spousal abuse, and human trafficking underground, doubly victimizing them.

SB-4 prohibits local authorities from adopting policies that prevent police officers from asking people about their immigration status. The law strips local authorities of their right to decide when it is appropriate to report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.

Finally, as all this were not enough reason for Amazon to skip over Texas, Attorney General Paxton jumped on his anti-immigrant bandwagon and threatened to sue the Trump Administration to end the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which happened.

DACA protects young undocumented residents, brought to the country as children before 2012, from deportation and allows them a renewable, two-year work permit. Paxton would deport them, even though they really have no homeland other than this country. He would expel them from college and take away their gainful employment as teachers, lawyers, and the like.

Amazon should follow the example of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The 15,000-member organization of attorneys and law professors canceled its 3-day convention in Grapevine next year. The event will relocate outside Texas because of the “dangerous, destructive and counterproductive” SB-4. About 3,000 people attend the convention.

No doubt there will be hand wringing about this request, and strong cuss words. Cities and others will argue this is misguided and short-sighted, that bringing HQ2 to Texas will benefit everyone, including the Hispanic community. It’s the old worn “a rising tide lifts all boats” maxim. But for Texas’ political leaders it is really more of a “lift all yachts” desire.

Until state officials jettison SB-4, halt their war on immigrants, and pay heed to the voices of law enforcement, business associations, and the Hispanic community, Amazon should locate its second headquarters elsewhere.

Thank you.

James C. Harrington, a human rights lawyer, is Founder and Director Emeritus of the Texas Civil Rights Project.