Thread: Sanctuary City Policies Will ‘No Longer be Tolerated in Texas,’ says Governor Abbott

by Bob Price
26 Oct 2015

Texas Governor Greg Abbott admonished Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez over her recent decision to consider honoring immigration detainers on a “case-by-case” basis. The governor said sanctuary city policies like this will “no longer be tolerated in Texas.”

Governor Abbott wrote the tersely worded letter to Sheriff Valdez after her decision announced earlier this month to scale back on honoring immigration detainers sent to her jail by the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her announcement was reported by Breitbart Texas on October 12.

“’Sanctuary City’ policies like those promoted by your recent decision to implement your own case-by-case immigrant detention plan will no longer be tolerated in Texas,” Abbott began in his letter attached below. “Your decision to not fully honor U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) requests to detain criminal immigrants poses a serious danger to Texans. These detainers provide ICE with the critical notice and time it needs to take incarcerated immigrants into federal custody.”

“Your refusal to fully participate in a federal law enforcement program intended to keep dangerous criminals off the streets leaves the State no choice but to take whatever actions are necessary to protect our fellow Texans,” Abbott continued. “Now more than ever, it is essential that state, federal, and local law enforcement work collaboratively to protect our fellow Texans and to ensure that our laws are upheld, not disregarded.”

The governor laid out actions he and the state of Texas could take in response to the renegade actions of this sheriff. Those include the following:

*Passing laws that prohibit any policy or action that promotes sanctuary to people in this state illegally.
*Enacting laws that make it illegal for a Sheriff’s Department to not honor a federal immigration detainer request.
*Evaluating the extent to which local taxpayers should foot the bill for local decisions that increase costs for Texas’ health and education systems.
*Amending the Tort Claims Act to ensure counties are fully financially responsible for the actions of any illegal immigrants who are released because the county’s Sheriff failed to honor an ICE detainer request.

Valdez says her new policy applies only to those who have committed minor offenses. She issued an order that these inmates not be held the additional 48 hours for ICE officials as has been done in the past, the Breitbart Texas article states.

“No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset,” Valdez told Dallas Morning News reporters. “We can’t base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole.” She did not elaborate on how releasing criminal illegal aliens into the community before ICE is able to determine if there is grounds for detention or deportation makes her community safer.

Lopez said that instead of looking at felonies vs. misdemeanors, she would instead base her decisions on a case-by-case basis.

“Now more than ever,” Abbott concluded in his letter, “it is essential that state, federal, and local law enforcement work collaboratively to protect our fellow Texans and to ensure that our laws are upheld, not disregarded.”

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/...vernor-abbott/

Abbott is taking out the trash!

Dallas sheriff responds to Texas governor: All ICE detainers honored this year

Brandi Grissom Follow @brandigrissom Email bgrissom@dallasnews.com
Published: October 26, 2015 11:00 am

Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the Dallas Regional Chamber at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on March 16, 2015. (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)

[Updated throughout story.]
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday sent a threatening letter to Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, urging her to honor federal immigration detainers.

“Your refusal to fully participate in a federal law enforcement program intended to keep dangerous criminals off the streets leaves the State no choice but to take whatever actions are necessary to protect our fellow Texans,” Abbott wrote.Valdez recently changed policies on holding immigrants in the Dallas County jail for federal immigration officials once the person is past his or her release date.

People who committed minor offenses aren’t held for up to an additional 48 hours for agents of U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement, or ICE.

Valdez responded this afternoon through her spokesman, noting her new policy was “very similar” to the new policy guidelines put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. The new program that replaced Secure Communities is called Priority Enforcement Program or PEP.

“In 2015 we did not have any detainer issued by ICE rejected by the Sheriff’s Department. From January 1, 2015 until today’s date October 26, 2015, we have accepted 1469 detainers from ICE and declined zero.

ICE is familiar with our agreement and doesn’t submit a detainer unless it falls into the upper two categories that are designated so in effect we have declined zero.”

Valdez’s decision follows others that were more dramatic and made earlier across the nation, as legal and community pressure increased over the controversial holds. Some 300 counties and cities have officially restricted the extent that they work with ICE, according to a count late last year by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

The new federal detention policies for deportation cases were announced last November and detailed in this memorandum from Jeh Johnson, the DHS chief. The sheriff made her policy change after consultations with local lawyers.

But Abbott criticized the decision, saying the detainers simply allow federal immigration authorities the time to collect and remove criminal immigrants.

“Your decision to not fully honor ICE’s requests to detain criminal immigrants poses a serious danger to Texans,” Abbott wrote. “These detainers provide ICE with the critical notice and time it needs to take incarcerated immigrants into federal custody.”

Abbott listed the potential repercussions should Valdez not change the county’s policy:
- Legislators could pass laws prohibiting policies that give sanctuary to people in Texas illegally.
- Legislators could pass laws that make it illegal for sheriffs not to honor federal immigration detainer requests.
- The state could evaluate the cost local taxpayers should pay for local decisions that increase the expense to the state’s health and education systems.
- Lawmakers could change the Tort Claims Act to ensure that counties are financially responsible for the actions of undocumented immigrants who are released despite the existence of an ICE detainer request.

The Dallas County policy change took effect on Sept. 1 and is done on a case-by-case basis. It’s been criticized by some immigration advocates as not going far enough to stop deportations of immigrants who have committed low-level offenses, such as traffic violations.

Further, the policy change isn’t written down, Sheriff Valdez said in a previous interview with The Dallas Morning News.

In fiscal year 2015, there were requests for about 2,048 holds, according to statistics from the sheriff’s office. In fiscal year 2014, there were requests for about 1930 holds.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c...etainers.html/

I live in Texas. This is fantastic news! I feel like printing out a hundred copies and handing them out to anyone I come across speaking Spanish!! Woo-Hoo!!

-Stop the invasion with mass deportation!

Immigrants relocating to Texas on rise

by BREITBART TEXAS
27 Oct 2015

We support Governor Abbott’s position and remedies expressed in his letter released on Monday regarding the Dallas County Sheriff’s refusal to honor federal immigration detainer policy, but this issue goes far beyond Dallas County and one rogue sheriff.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s declaration is an open invitation to lawlessness. It increases the risk that dangerous criminals will be returned to our communities, putting the public and our law enforcement officers at even greater risk. This is directly related to the entire sanctuary cities issue, which we have called on state leaders to address since the 82nd legislative session (2011). They have repeatedly failed to act, in part due to cheap labor interests. This failure to act at the state level has given rise to brazen pronouncements such as that of the Dallas County Sheriff and Travis County officials.

Waiting until 2017 to address this issue increases the risk to public safety and national security. It doesn’t take 100% of those here illegally to irreparably harm lives and our way of life. As we saw with the 9/11 attacks, with the cases of slain border patrol agents Brian Terry, Robert Rosas, Luis Aguilar, and Javier Vega (August 2014), and with the murders of Joshua Wilkerson, Spencer Golvach, Kate Steinle, and hundreds of other victims, it takes far less than 100% to forever change thousands of lives. Why wait?

Even Homeland Security has declared the focus of the program the Dallas County Sheriff opposes to be those subjects related to “threats to national security, border security, and public safety,” including “aliens engaged in or suspected of terrorism or espionage.”

We support Governor Abbott’s position and remedies expressed in his letter today, but we urge him to take decisive, immediate action. Only Governor Abbott can set this right, and we urge him to do it now. Waiting until 2017 to curtail lawlessness and to reduce the threats to public safety and national security is dangerous to Texas and the rest of the nation. Why wait?

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/...ctuary-cities/