After calls from United States Senators to move South by Southwest (SXSW) out of Austin due to Texas’ new sanctuary cities law, SB 4, which punishes cities and officials for failing to work with federal immigration authorities and allows officers to inquire into someone’s immigration status, SXSW’s founder, Roland Swenson, said the convention is staying put.
“Austin is our home and an integral part of who we are,” Swenson said in response to a call from two U.S. senators for the festival to move. “We stand by the City of Austin in their challenge against SB4 and will continue to speak out against it, and all discriminatory legislation.”
Critics say Texas could lose millions in money from conventions that boycott the state for violating civil liberties. Arizona lost hundreds of millions of dollars from a similar law, and North Carolina lost close to $4 billion for its anti-transgender “bathroom bill.”
SXSW is one of the biggest conventions in the United States, and losing it would be a massive blow to Austin. However, SXSW identifies more with the heavily liberal, anti-SB4 City of Austin than it does with Texas. That dynamic may be what keeps SXSW from leaving. Other conventions could be different. Austin is suing the state over the law.
Austin mayor Steve Adler, who is opposed to SB4, predictably doesn’t think SXSW should leave the city.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement asking SXSW to leave Austin is “the most ridiculous thing” he has ever heard.
“There are few greater expressions of Austin’s spirit and soul than SXSW,” he wrote. “In Austin, we welcome refugees, immigrants, people of all persuasions, religions, ethnicities, and orientations – even Senators from New Jersey and Nevada. There is no greater way to protest what is happening in Texas than to be yourself in Austin. Do not call on SXSW to leave Austin.”
SB4 faces significant legal and institutional challenges. Many law enforcement officials are against the law, because it makes immigrant communities less likely to work with them in solving crimes. A federal court in Illinois has also found that law enforcement cannot hold people on administrative Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, which is what this law forces them to do. This is why many jurisdictions in heavily Trump-supporting areas are often considered “sanctuary jurisdictions”—they don’t want to get sued (like Texas is).
It’s unclear whether SXSW will provide any material aid to those suing the state over SB4, or whether it will just provide statements and emotional support opposing the law.
