Dallas County sheriff: ‘Sanctuary cities’ law could lead to Ferguson-like protests
Published: December 10, 2015 4:52 pm
Brittney Martin
AUSTIN–Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez warned lawmakers Thursday that a measure to eliminate “sanctuary cities,” supported by Gov. Greg Abbott, could lead to “Ferguson-like” demonstrations in addition to jail overcrowding and economic repercussions.
While immigration law enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, Texas House and Senate committees were tasked with studying how state and local laws effect enforcement and make recommendations before the next legislative session in 2017.
Lawmakers and invited witnesses struggled Thursday to nail down an exact definition of a “sanctuary city,” but the term refers generally to a city or county that refuses to fully enforce federal immigration law.
A proposal that would have outlawed local rules that prohibit law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration law failed to pass earlier this year.
Valdez warned that if a similar proposal were to go forward, it would create tension in North Texas.
“People who look like me…will be stopped a lot more than people who look like the chairman,” she said. “Our cities are safer when there is a sense of trust in our communities, including our immigrant community, and that will be the case as long as our officers act fairly and treat our people with dignity.”
Valdez said the Dallas County jail is already the seventh largest in the country, and that the county does not have the resources to house even 10 percent of the undocumented immigrants in North Texas.
Valdez was reproached by Abbott in October for indicating that her department would decide on a “case by case” basis whether or not to comply with requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to hold that person in jail.
She sought to set the record straight on Thursday, telling lawmakers that it was “a rumor that has grown like a field weed spread with cow manure.”
“Every single request they’ve given to us, we’ve complied,” Valdez said.
ICE can ask counties to hold an undocumented person in jail past their release date or notify them when they’re going to be released. Valdez said she would be “very uncomfortable” complying with a detainment request if the person simply committed a traffic violation, but would honor the request if the federal agents had information suggesting further criminal behavior.
“If you have something that shows that this person who had a traffic stop issue has something more, then of course we will turn them over,” Valdez said. “And that was the case by case thing.”
Chairman of the committee Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, said ICE has indicated to lawmakers that all counties are complying with detainer requests.
Abbott threatened to withhold grant money from counties that did not honor requests.
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