Hundreds marched Tuesday in downtown Fort Worth demanding that city council members join Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston in a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 4, also known as the "sanctuary city" law.
The group, United Fort Worth, organized a rally that ended outside City Hall.
"As a local here and a resident of Fort Worth, I want to see my city back up our community and make sure they stand with us in this fight against SB4," said Raul Rodriguez of Fort Worth.
The law is set to take effect Sept. 1.
In an afternoon meeting, four council members spoke out against the law Tuesday and urged the city to join the legal challenge.
Kelly Allen Gray said she worried about racial profiling.
"If you've never been pulled over because of the color of your skin, let me tell you as a black woman, it doesn't feel good," she said.
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But Mayor Betsy Price and the majority of other council members opposed challenging SB4 in court, saying Fort Worth always follows the law and is not a sanctuary city.
Council members spoke after hearing about how the law may affect police.
Assistant Police Chief Ed Kraus predicted it will create strains between the immigrant community and officers on the street.
"What we believe we'll see and what we've already seen is certain members of our community not reporting crime," he said, adding the department will never allow racial profiling.
The protesters said they want to feel that their voices are being heard.
"It seems that the Latino community or minority communities are often ignored or targeted or just swept to the side," said United Fort Worth member Cassandra Fernandez.
Gov. Greg Abbott defended SB4 earlier this week.
"The purpose of it was to identify and remove from the streets dangerous criminals, not to detain hard-working families or innocent children," Abbott said.
Protesters said those words didn't ring true to them.
"What's incorrect is he says that only those of criminal background will be targeted, however any person of color will be targeted," Martha Vasquez said.
Nearly a half-dozen counter-protesters attended the rally in support of SB4, but police officers on bicycles kept the groups apart.
NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
