Daily Dispatch 12/20/23: Outrage And Lawsuits Over Texas Immigration Law, and More

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The ACLU, alongside El Paso officials, have sued the state over Governor Abbott's signing of SB-4: https://newrepublic.com/post/177674/texas-just-passed-one-countrys-racist-immigration-laws ...El Paso's district attorney is one of the lawsuit's targets - though Bill Hicks' office has said they won't pursue SB-4 cases: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/el-paso-texas-migrant-arrest-suit.html ...The immigration advocacy group American Gateways is participating in the lawsuit: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-immigration-law-sb-4 ...ACLU chapters in New Mexico and other states have issued warnings to non-White residents regarding travel in Texas considering SB-4: https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/aclu-issues-warning-for-new-mexicans-traveling-to-texas/ ...Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticizes Governor Abbott on political and religious grounds: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexicos-president-texas-governor-clash-immigration-rcna130466 ...The Biden White House refers the matter to the federal court system: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/politics/white-house-response-texas-law/index.html ...While a federal court stops U.S. Border Patrol agents from cutting razor wire put in place by Texas while their case on that topic is under appeal: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/texas-border-wire-biden-administration.html Reacting to Colorado's shunning of Donald Trump, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick threatens to remove President Joe Biden from the Texas ballot: https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-lt-guv-threatens-to-take-biden-off-states-ballot-after-colorado-ruling Amarillo city officials continue debating whether to enact a so-called "abortion travel ban": https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/19/amarillo-abortion-trafficking-texas-bans#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17030248018867&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2023%2Fdec%2F19%2Famarillo-abortion-trafficking-texas-bans ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas touts improvements to the power grid, but also hedges on possible threats to the grid's performance this winter: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/texas-power-grid-manager-touts-improvements-to-the-grid-but-warns-of-increasing-risks-of-outages-in-extreme-storm-events/269-4a1f8840-770d-4229-b062-3069d30ca54d ...While PUC officials will review enormously expensive new power grid rules: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-19/texas-to-revisit-power-reserve-policies-amid-spat-with-grid-watchdog Texas leads the nation in annual population growth, according to new statistics: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/19/texas-2023-population-growth-census/ Thanks for listening! Please consider making a donation to help Progress Texas continue our important work at https://progresstexas.org/.