Texas Republican state Rep. Matt Rinaldi, the noted pendejo who responded to pro-immigrant demonstrators outraged about the state’s discriminatory “show me your papers” law by siccing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on them, was given the boot by voters this week, the Texas Observer reports. “With all of the early vote in plus more than half of precincts reporting, Rinaldi’s opponent Julie Johnson is up by 12 points. The odds of Rinaldi coming back from that are virtually nil, so the Observer is calling it for Johnson.”
Good riddance to trash people, because that’s what Rinaldi has been. Outraged over the state’s racist measure, communities and activists of all ethnicities and citizenship statuses responded by flooding the statehouse with chants of “shame!” Rinaldi responded by calling ICE “on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery which said ‘I am illegal and here to stay,'” he alleged in a Facebook post at the time.
State Rep. Ramon Romero said at the time that Rinaldi “saw a bunch of people who look Latino, and he assumed they were undocumented. So how can he say SB4 won’t lead to racial profiling?” Rinaldi’s actions let to another Latino member of the statehouse, Rep. Cesar Blanco, receiving a racist message from a man railing on “illegal alien spics” and saying he “stands with” Rinaldi. “White power,” the man said before ending the conversation.
Protesters later demonstrated outside Rinaldi’s office, some with “bags of ice,” The Dallas Morning News reported. “Dallas political activist Carlos Quintanilla, who used social media to organize Wednesday's protest, said he wanted to let Rinaldi know protesters will work to remove him from his seat in 2018.” Well done Carlos, congrats to Johnson, and adiós Matt.