East Texas representative files bill to end sanctuary cities

Wednesday, February 22nd 2017, 3:26 pm PST
Wednesday, February 22nd 2017, 3:26 pm PST
By KLTV Digital Media StaffCONNECT


From the office of Rep. Jay Dean

Austin, TX - On Wednesday, February 22, Representative Jay Dean (HD-7) filed HB 2280, a bill that would require law enforcement officers in Texas to enforce both federal and state immigration law by complying with immigration detainer requests.

"Throughout my campaign I personally spoke with several hundred of my neighbors on their doorsteps.

Overwhelmingly, the top issues that arose from those conversations was that we need to do more to keep our communities safe by pushing back against illegal immigration and ending the practice of sanctuary cities," said Dean. "Sadly, there are laws on the books already, but we still have departments across Texas failing to uphold the law. We need to put an end to Sanctuary Cities, and that's why I filed this bill."

HB 2280 stipulates that upon a person's arrest, the law enforcement officer executing the arrest shall make a request as to the immigration status of the arrested person from a federal immigration officer or a state law enforcement officer of the state authorized to verify a person's immigration status. Should a law enforcement agency discover that an arrested person in their custody is subject to an immigration detainer issued by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then that agency must detain that arrested person as required by the retainer and notify the presiding judge in the case of the immigration detainer.

HB 2280 also includes a provision prohibiting discrimination based on a person's race, color, language, or national origin to clearly delineate that personal civil liberties are respected under the provisions of the bill.

http://www.kltv.com/story/34578801/e...nctuary-cities