"Freedom Warriors" from across the nation gather in preparation for SB4 rally

People from across the country made their way to Austin to fight against SB4, the sanctuary cities bill.

They call themselves the “Freedom Warriors” and said they came together in preparation for a protest at the capitol for the last day of the legislative session.

Ambar Pinto is one those with United We Dream, her journey took three days on a bus to get to Austin.

“We left Thursday morning.  We did a caravan from the D.C. area; I live in northern Virginia, all the way to Austin.” She said she made her way to Austin to stand beside Texas immigrant families in their fight against SB4, “We will show up as a community to know and demand and tell them we are not going to tolerate SB4, not only for our community in Texas but for anywhere in the U.S. and that we will fight back no matter what it takes,” she said.

Senate Bill 4 was signed by Governor Greg Abbott May 14th.

The new law says police chiefs and sheriffs must cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. If they refuse they could face charges or be removed from office. 

“SB4 is founded on racial profiling, it's going to normalize criminalization of people of color and it's going to basically normalize deportations of our undocumented immigrants,” Pinto said.

United We Dream in Austin has already been fighting back against the bill. But Monday, for the last day of legislative session, they were getting support from across the nation. 

Julieta Garibay is a Deputy Advocacy Director for the group, “Our affiliates from Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, D.C., New York, Virginia, and Maryland are like ‘Well we want to be there, we know this is a moment of somewhat crisis for many communities,’” she said.

While legislators will be celebrating the end of the session inside the capitol, the “Freedom Warriors” said they will be outside with their own message. “We are not alone. Other people in other states know it's happening and other people are joining us to resist in this, and to say that we are together,” Garibay said.

“If this were to happen in my hometown in Virginia, I would want everybody from all across the nation to come and say ‘No this is not okay, we are going to fight along your side,’” Pinto said.