Press Contact: Devin McMahon, Manager of Communications
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AUSTIN, TX – Today, the Texas House of Representatives passed an improved version of Senate Joint Resolution 5 (SJR 5), a constitutional amendment that would expand the state’s authority to detain legally innocent Texans before trial. The bill, which was weakened through 11th hour changes on the floor, still raises serious concerns. At the same time, the House made critical overall improvements to the original version – reforms that must remain intact through the reconciliation process to safeguard due process and prevent misuse of pretrial detention.
SJR 5 was considered alongside Senate Joint Resolution 1 (SJR 1), a dangerous proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution that would require judges to deny pretrial release for a broad list of charges for people loosely defined as an ‘illegal alien,’ which would include DACA recipients and asylum seekers. Senate Bill 9 (SB 9) will be heard again in the House tomorrow, along with SJR 1; this bill would broadly expand the use of cash bail in the state, perpetuating a broken two-tiered system of justice that punishes working class people. The Bail Project will also be available to comment on the outcome of SJR 1 and SB 9 tomorrow.
Nicole Zayas Manzano, Deputy Director of Policy at The Bail Project, issued the following statement in response:
“The Senate’s version of SJR 5 threatened to unravel core legal protections and open the floodgates for unchecked pretrial incarceration. But today, the House took a meaningful step in the right direction by passing a version of the amendment that restores critical safeguards. High legal standards to deny release and the right to counsel when pretrial liberty is at stake are essential to protecting due process and preventing widespread abuse of pretrial detention. While our concerns about threats to pretrial liberty remain, the House version reflects a more responsible approach. Lawmakers must stand firm in conference and reject any attempts to strip these hard-fought protections.
As SJR 1 and SB 9 come before the house again tomorrow, Representatives must act decisively: reject both bills. SJR 1 uses pretrial detention as a tool to criminalize immigrants, while SB 9 would lock Texas deeper into a system that jails people simply for being poor.”
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