Sports commentator Stephen A Smith went nuclear on Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, calling the Gov. a “racist” for his “inhumane” new rules allowing state and local police to arrest illegal aliens in the Lone Star State.
Abbott signed SB4 into law on Monday, making illegal entry into Texas a crime and giving police the authority to arrest those who break that new law.
“The goal of these laws is to make sure that when they see somebody crossing over the border, as the National Guard see, as the Texas Department of Public Safety see, they know they’re not profiling. They are seeing with their own eyes people who are violating the law,” Abbott said as he signed the bill into law.
It remains to be seen whether the law can pass constitutional muster since the federal government generally holds the power to make immigration laws. Naturally, left-wing advocacy groups are already rushing cases into the courts to stop the implementation of the law.
But as far as Smith is concerned, the new law is “enslavement” and “racist.”
This is a disgrace. It is inhumane.
On Texas’ new immigration bill. pic.twitter.com/baGhpEGLzD
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) December 19, 2023
During his Tuesday episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, the sports analyst took a few minutes away from his expertise to harangue Texas over its efforts to deal with Joe Biden’s dangerous and destructive border crisis.
“This bad, ladies and gentlemen,” Smith said, according to Mediaite. “This is a disgrace. It’s inhumane; and it opens the floodgate to further divide our nation because when you have law enforcement that literally can arrest people over a ‘suspicion,’ think about that for a second. People can be arrested who are suspected of entering the country illegally.
“Do you realize that means a law enforcement official can walk up to somebody (and say), ‘Alright, they look Hispanic. OK, their English is broken. They don’t speak fluent English. So that can be a cause for me to arrest them.’”
Emulating Joe Biden, Smith then began uncontrollably yelling at the camera.
“It’s racist! Somebody needs to say it, so I’m gonna say it! It’s a racist-ass thing to do! Suspicion? Suspected of entering the country illegally? How can you be suspected of entering the country illegally?” he barked.
An aerial view shows that a U.S. Border Patrol agent supervises as immigrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on September 30, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“So, you’re chilling in downtown Dallas or Houston. You’re hanging out with a bunch of folks. You’re speaking Spanish instead of English. Your clothes might not be a Tom Ford suit or something. You might not be wearing a Jordan sweatsuit. You might look a little poor and impoverished, a bit haggard or haphazard. You might not look the part. That’s a suspicion. They can literally label that a suspicion to justify arresting you. Not questioning you, not asking for an ID. They literally can arrest you!”
Smith offered no suggestions at all about how to stop the flow of millions of illegals coming across the border and seemed to assume that Texas should be obligated to the feeding, housing, and caring of them at public expense. Nor did Smith have any words or the duties of the federal government to secure our national borders and deal with the millions of criminal illegals coming here for economic reasons.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston