May 30 (UPI) — Lawmakers scuffled on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives Monday after one called immigration authorities on protesters.
Matt Rinaldi, a Republican state representative from Irving, called Immigration and Customs Enforcement while hundreds of people protested Senate Bill 4, the controversial Texas legislation that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law.
It bans sanctuary cities, allows police to ask for the immigration status of anyone they detain and threatens sheriffs with jail time if they don’t cooperate with federal authorities.
The demonstrators disrupted the last day of the state legislature’s regular session and Rinaldi said he called ICE because he didn’t know how to handle the large protest.
“A lot of people had signs that said, ‘We are illegal and here to stay,'” he told the Texas Tribune. “And we called law enforcement trying to incentivize them to leave the House. They were disrupting. They were breaking the law.”
His actions enraged Hispanic legislators.
“We were just on the floor talking about the SB4 protests, and Matt Rinaldi came up to us and made it a point to say, ‘I called (ICE) on all of them,'” said Philip Cortez, a Democratic state representative from San Antonio. “And this is completely unacceptable. We will not be intimidated. We will not be disrespected.”
