Austin, Texas - Texas residents and a local non-profit are fighting back against an extreme anti-migrant bill in a new lawsuit.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) filed the complaint on behalf of community organization La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and four Texas residents.

Senate Bill 4, known as the "Show Me Your Papers" law, would empower state and local law enforcement to detain, arrest, and deport people suspected of entering the US without documentation.

Opponents have warned that its provisions will lead to even more racial profiling and militarization of border communities.

Joe Biden Jimmy Carter: Biden announces national day of mourning as Trump and ex-presidents react to death

SB 4 is already facing legal challenges from the Advocacy Center, American Gateways, and the County of El Paso, as well as the Biden administration's Justice Department.

The cases have been consolidated into US vs. Texas, with a stay to a preliminary injunction currently under review by the Supreme Court.

The new lawsuit – filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division – argues that SB 4 violates the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

The plaintiffs assert that Texas' threat to deport people constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

"SB 4 is the most extreme anti-immigrant state law in the last 50 years, bar none," Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel, said in a press release.

Migration US deported record numbers of Guatemalans in 2024, agency reports

"Not only does the law seek to establish the state's own deportation and removal apparatus using untrained police officers and judges, in doing so, SB 4 seeks to impose the wholly outdated criminal punishment of banishment."

NILC President Kica Matos added: "SB 4 will do nothing to solve this nation's immigration issues but will instead lead to racial profiling of immigrants and US-born residents alike while wasting billions of Texas taxpayer dollars."

"For the sake of all Texans, and in support of basic human decency, [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott and [Attorney General Ken] Paxton should abandon their defense of SB 4."

Abbott signed SB 4 into law last December, sparking immediate outcry from borderland communities and immigrants' rights advocates.

"As a membership-based organization, our ability to adequately serve our low-income and immigrant members is our number one priority," said Tania Chavez Camacho, executive director of LUPE, which provides legal services and support in immigration cases.

"SB 4 will place unjust stress on our members because of where they were born, even if they are actively going through a legal process to adjust their immigration status and have the legal right to live in the US," Chavez Camacho continued. "This law promotes racial profiling and blanket permission for law enforcement to criminalize our community."

Plaintiff Mary Doe, who moved from El Salvador to the US over 30 years ago and chose to keep her identity anonymous, said, "My kids, my parents, and my whole life are here. I have permission to work, and I work hard, I pay taxes, and I am proud of my job as a government employee. This is what immigrants do, they work hard and contribute to the country and raise their children to do the same."

"I am standing up to fight this law because what Texas is doing is wrong. If I were removed from my home and sent away to a country I barely know, it would be devastating not just for me, but for everyone in America who my life is connected to."

SB 4 was initially scheduled to take effect on March 5, 2024.